The wait is finally over, Brewers fans. After 58 long and hard seasons, the Milwaukee Brewers have a championship under their belt. This seemingly magical season just got better for the Brewers in dominant fashion. Today, we will be breaking down the run and how they got it done.
First off, we have to talk about the dominant style that Milwaukee had during this postseason run. Only losing two games all postseason, one being to San Diego in the NLDS, and then the 12th inning miracle win by the Rays while being up 3-0 in the World Series anyways. They swept the back-to-back champion Dodgers squad pretty convincingly and obviously took care of the 98 win Rays in the World Series. So, how did they do it?
The first main quality that the Brewers had was their relief pitching. Led by Aaron Ashby, who didn’t give up an earned run all postseason, as well as Trevor Megill, DL Hall, Abner Uribe, and Antonio Senzatela. Ashby set a postseason record with 18 straight scoreless innings. It seemed like every single time the Brewers had the lead going into the later innings of the game, they would hold onto it. It’s impossible, yet it happened right in front of our eyes. The run prevention in the playoffs by this Milwaukee team was one of the greatest of all time. This leads us into my next point which is…
Hitting with runners in scoring position. The Brewers and the Rays were the two best teams in baseball at it going into the series, but yet while watching the games, it looked as if the Brewers got the big time hits everytime and the Rays would get out every single time. Multiple times in the series the Brewers had to come from behind late in the game, such as in Game 2 when the Rays got off to a 4-0 lead in the 1st. Rather than panic, they stood strong and slowly came back until Cooper Pratt hit the winning single with a runner on third in the 7th inning.
Getting lucky. The truth is every single championship team needs a little luck to win. In the NLDS, Manny Machado crushed a ball late in the game that Garrett Mitchell robbed of a home run. Ty France hit a ball that bounced off the roof in play for an out in the 9th inning that likely would’ve been a home run. They dog walked past a injury riddled Dodgers team that had their best player go through the worst slump of his life. They won Game 2 on a controversial (to say the least) check swing call on Yandy Diaz in the top of the 9th. William Contreras seemingly getting every single challenge call correct during the World Series. It takes so much to win a championship and you need so much to go right throughout the run, which is exactly what happened to the Brewers this offseason. That’s not to say the entire run was lucky, just that these things happen to every champion.
So, the Brewers finally get the ring that was so well deserved to them. As a Reds fan, this gave me hope that the Reds can maybe win a playoff series this century. (only team in Big 4 sports without a win) Best of luck to the Brewers next season–if we even have a baseball season. Hopefully with the two smaller market teams making it to the World Series, the owners and players can come to an agreement faster on the salary cap issue. Go Reds!!
