2020 National League Wild Card Series 1

2020 National League Wild Card Series

Los Angeles Dodgers 43 - 17 in the NL	2 - 0 Series Summary	Milwaukee Brewers 29 - 31 in the NL

Overview[edit]

The Teams[edit]

Managers: Dodgers: Dave Roberts | Brewers: Craig Counsell

Dodgers

Brewers

Umpires[edit]

Mark Ripperger, Quinn Wolcott, Jim Reynolds, Alfonso Marquez, Chris Guccione, Lance Barrett

Series results[edit]

Game	Score	Date	Starters	Time (ET)
1	Milwaukee Brewers 2 Los Angeles Dodgers 4	September 30	Brent Suter (0-1) Walker Buehler (0-0)	10:00 pm
2	Milwaukee Brewers 0 Los Angeles Dodgers 3	October 1	Brandon Woodruff (0-1) Clayton Kershaw (1-0)	10:00 pm

Results[edit]

Game 1 @ Dodger Stadium[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Brewers	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	7	0
Dodgers	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	x	4	6	1
WP: Julio Urias (1-0); LP: Brent Suter (0-1); SV: Kenley Jansen (1)
Home Runs: MIL - Orlando Arcia (1); LA - Corey Seager (1)

Attendance: none

Game 1 featured a contrast in styles in terms of starting pitchers, with the Dodgers sending one of the best young hurlers in the game in Walker Buehler, while the Brewers delegated an opener with Brent Suter taking the mound. Whatever the Brewers tried to accomplish with that strategy, it did not work, as Suter had a really tough 1st inning. After Buehler had set down the Brewers in order, Mookie Betts led off the bottom of the inning with a double. Suter then walked Corey Seager, and after retiring Justin Turner on a pop-up, walked Max Muncy as well to load the bases. Suter then kept on walkin' like a fine bottle of Johnny Walker whisky, issuing a free pass to Will Smith, forcing in a first run, and another one to A.J. Pollock to push another runner across the plate after Cody Bellinger had flied out for the second out. Suter then got Edwin Rios to ground out, but the Dodgers were up, 2-0.

In the 2nd, after another quick inning by Buehler, Suter got into more trouble by allowing back-to-back doubles to Chris Taylor and Betts to make the score 3-0. He then retired the next two batters, but after walking Muncy for the second time, he gave way to Eric Yardley who got Smith to fly out to end the inning. But after that quick start, the Dodgers became quiet, and in the 4th, the Brewers got back in the game. All it took was a double by Daniel Vogelbach and a homer by Orlando Arcia, and suddenly what had seemed like an easy game for the Dodgers was now a 3-2 nail-biter. In the 5th, Buehler gave way to another young pitcher in Julio Urias, although he was also a veteran of many postseason outings like the man he replaced; it was later explained that Buehler had been developing a blister on his pitching end, hence his early departure from the game. He shut down the Brewers for the next three innings, and during that time, the Dodgers were able to add an insurance run. It came in the bottom of the 7th, on a solo homer by Seager off Freddy Peralta. Blake Treinen pitched the 8th and Kenley Jansen the 9th; neither of them gave up a run and the Dodgers had a 4-2 win.

Game 2 @ Dodger Stadium[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Brewers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Dodgers	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	x	3	6	0
WP: Clayton Kershaw (1-0); LP: Brandon Woodruff (0-1); SV: Brusdar Graterol (1)
Home Runs: none

Attendance: none

Game 2 featured the two teams' aces facing off one against the other, with Clayton Kershaw taking the mound for the Dodgers against Brandon Woodruff for the Brewers. This was expected to be a low-scoring game, and indeed runs were scored in only one inning as the Dodgers completed the sweep with a 3-0 shutout win. Kershaw had been known to underperform on many occasions during the postseason, in spite of being consistently among the best pitchers in baseball for over a decade, but it was not the case tonight: the genuine article showed up and he reeled off 8 masterful innings, giving up a mere 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 13 opponents. None of the hits went for extra bases, as the Brewers never really had a good scoring chance. Woodruff was also quite good, keeping up pace for pace with Kershaw in the early innings, but in his case, the 5th inning spelled his doom.

The fateful frame began with a one-out single by Cody Bellinger, followed by another single by Chris Taylor. After a mound visit, A.J. Pollock hit a grounder to 3B Luis Urias, who stepped on the third base bag to force Bellinger for the second out, but he was unable to complete the double play that would have ended the inning with no damage. Two-thirds out of the jam, Woodruff couldn't escape. On a 2-2 count, Austin Barnes singled to center and Taylor came in to score. Next up was Mookie Betts, and he hit a double to left, driving in the two baserunners to make it 3-0. Relief ace Josh Hader replaced Woodruff at this point, but the proverbial horse had left the barn. Actually, Woodruff did not leave of his own volition, as he was ejected by umpire Quinn Wolcott for reacting to Betts's hit by uttering a loud profanity that could be easily heard by everyone in the empty ballpark, but that was academic as his night was done anyway. Hader struck out Corey Seager to end the inning, but it was too little, too late. The Brewers were unable to score any runs, even suffering the humiliation of seeing Urias picked off first base by Kershaw after reaching on a one-out walk in the 8th.

In the 9th, manager Dave Roberts did not call on his closer, Kenley Jansen, who had pitched the previous night, but instead on young fireballer Brusdar Graterol, one of the team's prize off-season acquisitions alongside Betts. He allowed a lead-off single to Avisail Garcia, but on a very close play that prompted a video review, Christian Yelich forced him out on a grounder to 2B Kiké Hernandez who relayed to SS Seager. Had the call gone the other way, the tying run would have come to bat with no one out, but instead pinch-hitters Daniel Vogelbach and Ben Gamel both flied out to Taylor in left and the ballgame and the series were over, with the Dodgers advancing easily.