MILWAUKEE – The Braves lost Game 1 of the National League Division Serie, 2-1 to the Brewers in Milwaukee on Friday. It was the low-scoring contest many expected, with a late Brewers homer sending the team to a win after aces Charlie Morton and Corbin Burnes spent most of the afternoon stifling the opposing offense.
The Brewers hold a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five series.
Here are five takeaways from Friday:
1. The Brewers won with first baseman Rowdy Tellez’s two-run homer off Morton in the seventh. That snapped a scoreless tie and also provided important insurance, as the Braves later recovered a run with outfielder Joc Pederson’s pinch-hit shot off Adrian Houser in the eighth.
Tellez’s blast was one of the Brewers’ five hits. The Braves had only four. The teams were a combined 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Exceptional pitching was expected to take center stage in this series, and Game 1 lived up to the hype.
2. The Braves’ fate might’ve been different had they capitalized on the first inning. Outfielder Jorge Soler and first baseman Freddie Freeman drew walks off Burnes to begin the game. Soler advanced to third on a passed ball, giving the Braves runners at the corners with none out.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies then triggered a crucial sequence: He swung at a low-and-inside pitch that was grounded to Tellez. The first baseman tagged the base and fired home, where Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez nabbed Soler for a double play.
Freeman advanced to third on a wild pitch, but third baseman Austin Riley struck out. The Braves were left empty-handed despite having two on with none out and twice having a base runner at third.
“It’s big, when you face a starting pitcher like that, if you can get him early,” Snitker said. “If you let them off the hook, they’ll get settled in and find their location and all that. ... Credit to him for making pitches to get out of that inning because he had a lot of pitches at that point in time. And I was just looking at that, too, thinking if we get this line moving a little bit, then maybe an inning or two down the road, we can get rid of him.”
That didn’t happen: Burnes required 40 pitches to navigate the first two frames but only 51 over the next four innings. Despite a sloppy start that included three walks before retiring a fourth hitter, Burnes exited the mound having kept the Braves off the board.
3. Morton surrendered the game-defining blast, but the Braves’ loss wasn’t his fault. He mostly was excellent over six frames, fanning nine Brewers – tying a postseason career high – and keeping pace with Burnes, who led the NL in ERA during the regular season.
After speaking with Morton, Snitker felt comfortable sending the veteran out for the seventh at 77 pitches. Morton hit Brewers outfielder Avisail Garcia on the fourth pitch of the first at-bat in the frame. He surrendered the home run on his second pitch to Tellez.
“I hit Avi with the heater; I just yanked that four-seamer to Rowdy,” Morton said. “I felt like I threw the ball well. I worked into the seventh inning, felt like we were in a really good spot. Then I hit Avi in a two-strike count, and I grooved one to Rowdy with a two-strike count.”
Morton was lifted for reliever Luke Jackson after Tellez put the Brewers ahead. It ended one of the finer postseason outings of his career on a sour note.
4. Per MLB statistician Sarah Langs: At 37 years and 330 days old, Morton became the third-oldest pitcher to start a postseason game in franchise history. The older starters were Phil Niekro in Game 2 of the 1982 NL Championship Series (43 years, 191 days) and John Smoltz in Game 2 of the 2005 NLDS (38 years, 144 days).
“Dominant,” Pederson said of Morton. “He executed his pitches. He made two tough ones with two strikes on hitters (Garcia and Tellez). And we weren’t able to capitalize the first inning, and we weren’t able to get him any run support. So he was grinding, but he threw the ball great.”
5. The Braves’ best chance to score besides the first frame came in the ninth. Freeman drew a leadoff walk off All-Star Brewers closer Josh Hader. Albies followed with a strikeout to conclude his tough day, but Riley’s first-pitch single positioned the Braves to potentially even the score.
Hader induced slugger Adam Duvall into a soft hit that resulted in a force out. Snitker summoned former Brewer Orlando Arcia as a pinch-hitter for outfielder Eddie Rosario. It set up the former-team card Snitker often references possibly helping the Braves, but Arcia grounded out on a 2-2 pitch.
“It was ironic for sure that he was the hitter,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I was confident he was going to put the ball in play. Josh made some good pitches to get ahead of him and put him on the defensive a little more.”
Stat to know
3-17 (The Braves are 3-17 when losing Game 1 of a series. They haven’t overcome an 1-0 deficit since upending the Astros in the 1999 NLDS.)
Quotable
“It was exactly what I thought, going in, that this game would be.” – Snitker
Up next
The Braves and Brewers continue their series Saturday in Game 2. Max Fried (14-7, 3.04) opposes Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff (9-10, 2.56) as the Braves try to even the series before it shifts to Atlanta.
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