NLDS Gm. 2 Preview Rockies @ Brewers
Milwaukee got off on the right foot last night with a big 3-2 extra innings win in the 10th. The probable NL MVP Christian Yelich got things going early with a two run home run in the 3rd inning to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead. The game stayed fairly stagnant for a while with both bullpens only giving up a combined two hits.
The Rockies struggled to put runs together all game, mustering up only one hit through the first eight innings of the game. Including both the tiebreaker game and the NL Wild Card game, the team went on a stretch where they had three runs over the course of 30 consecutive innings.
They finally broke the offence open in the top of the 9th when the Brewers brought in closer Jeremy Jeffress to try and get the save. Gerrardo Parra scored a pinch hit single to get the inning started, followed quickly by another pinch hit single by Matt Holliday. Charlie Blackmon nearly tied the game on a close foul ball that had to go to review to be overturned. He later scored Parra with a single to right field. The Brewers were beginning to unravel as the next batter (Dj LeMahieu) hit a routine ground ball to Orlando Arcia that he bobbled and got not outs.
Jeffress shut it down after that, only allowing the tying run to score on a sac fly to center field. The Rockies managed only one run with the bases loaded and no outs.
The game was decided the next inning when Mike Moustakas hit a walk off single to right to score Yelich from third.
The Brewers experiment of a bullpen game in game one of the series seemingly paid off. Until the 9th inning the only threat they faced was a Carlos Gonzalez triple in the 5th. Outside of Jeffress, the bullpen had three base runners while striking out 11.
Today, the Brewers will go with a more traditional approach, using their best starter Jhoulys Chacin. Chacin put up decent numbers this year, finishing the year with a 15-8 record, while sporting a 3.50 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. The hope is to get a few innings out of him before turning it back over to their lights out bullpen.
The Rockies will counter with 28 year old Tyler Anderson. Anderson has a tough year going 7-9 with a 4.55 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. The Rockies are quietly hoping for a miracle out of Anderson as they have already used three other starters this week. Hopefully for them, the offence that showed up in the 9th inning of game one will return for game two of the series.
The game begins at 4:15 at Miller Park in Milwaukee.