What you need to know about the Braves’ 5-4 win over the Brewers in their National League Division Series Game 4 at Truist Park on Tuesday:
Freeman vs. Hader
Freddie Freeman’s dramatic solo home run off Brewers closer extraordinaire Josh Hader with two outs in the eighth inning snapped a 4-4 tie, giving the Braves their only lead of the game. It was the first homer against Hader since July 28 – and the first against him by a left-handed batter all year. Will Smith then pitched a scoreless ninth to put the Braves in the NL Championship Series for a second consecutive season.
For starters ...
The managers made opposite decisions regarding their starting pitchers. While the Braves’ Brian Snitker opted to start Charlie Morton on three days rest, the Brewers’ Craig Counsell chose not to start Corbin Burnes on short rest and instead went with Eric Lauer. Morton and Lauer delivered similar outings, both battling through three scoreless innings before leaving the game amid two-run rallies in the fourth.
RISP breakthrough
Milwaukee was 0-for-20 with runners in scoring position for the series until the last batter to face Morton, Omar Narvaez, delivered an RBI single in the fourth inning to score Avisail Garcia from second base and end the Brewers’ 22-inning scoreless streak.
Off the bench
Joc Pederson and Eddie Rosario exchanged roles for Game 4, with Pederson starting in the outfield and Rosario serving as a pinch-hitter. Rosario delivered a broken-bat single against Brewers reliever Hunter Strickland to drive home two runs, both charged to Lauer, and tie the score 2-2.
Tellez, again
Milwaukee’s Rowdy Tellez hit his second two-run homer of the series, this one a 448-foot blast beyond center field off Braves reliever Huascar Ynoa in the fifth inning to give the Brewers a short-lived 4-2 lead. The Braves tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Travis d’Arnaud, who was 1-for-10 in the first three games of the series.
On the bases
Adam Duvall committed his second base-running gaffe in two days: He was easily doubled off second base after left fielder Christian Yelich caught Guillermo Heredia’s one-out fly ball to left field in the second inning. The day before, on what should have been a sacrifice fly, Duvall cost the Braves a run when he was tagged out attempting to advance to second base before lead runner Austin Riley could score from third.
Notable
-- Dansby Swanson was elevated from eighth to first in the Braves’ batting order after Jorge Soler’s positive test for COVID-19. Swanson drilled a ground-rule double to left-center in his first at-bat of the game.
-- Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who had a hard collision with the outfield fence Monday, was in the starting lineup Tuesday despite a sore neck and shoulder. He had hits in his first two at-bats.
-- After going 3-for-3 as a pinch-hitter in the first three games of the series, Pederson went 0-for-4 as the starting right fielder in Game 4, but he had an RBI in the fifth inning on a fielder’s-choice grounder.
-- Braves reliever A.J. Minter, making his first appearance of the series, faced four batters -- and struck out three. Minter, Luke Jackson and Tyler Matzek kept the game 4-4 from the sixth until Freeman’s homer.
-- Brewers third baseman Luis Urias turned in several dazzling defensive plays.
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