Can ‘No-Stars’ Brewers Hold Up Against Star-Heavy Dodgers In Post-Season?

Manny Machado struck the ball in what everyone in attendance thought would be a game-tying run, but Christian Yeilich didn’t watch it fly.

He looked at Machado, who barely moved after the ball left his bat, signaling that it would sail over the fence and tie Game 4.

“He’s hit about 400 homers in this league,” Yelich said. “He kind of knows what it feels like when he gets one.” 

Brewers center fielder Garret Mitchell fenced off a couple of fans and made a catch that helped Milwaukee win 3-1 and return to the NLCS for a rematch against the back-to-back defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I was just trying to get back to the ball,” Mitchell said. “The ball was hit really well. I don’t know, it just happened. Instinctually just do what I do, make a good jump and see what happens.” 

Mitchell catch on a ball that traveled 406 feet and 106.7 mph helped snap the Brewers’ 12-game postseason road losing streak, tied for the longest in major league history. Home run robberies have been tracked since 2004. According to ESPN Insights, Machado’s home run marked the first time a player had been robbed of a potential game-tying or go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later of a playoff game.

“I was really worried,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “But like Garrett Mitchell just vanished into the crowd and pulled it out. It was awesome.” 

The Brewers won a major league best 103 regular-season games behind a dominant bullpen, an airtight defense, and an offense that excels at the little things. Still, the question remains whether this team is good enough to take down a Dodgers team that outscored them 15-4 in a four-game sweep in last year’s NLCS.

Mitchell, who drove in the game’s first run and scored the second, believes there’s a “different type of confidence and belief in ourselves” that will make the difference.

 “Coming into the postseason, you have a feeling that you’re gonna have to go through L.A.,” Yelich said. “They’re back-to-back champs, and they’re a great team. We have a lot of respect for those guys. But at the same time, we feel like we can play with everybody. And when we play our game and our brand of baseball, we’re a really hard team to beat.” 

“A lot of people have said we’re not built for the postseason because we’ve done so well in the regular season,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We just have a dearth of players, no stars, not many stars, where I think we’re proving that, no, we still can win in the postseason because good baseball is good baseball.”