The 38-year-old journeyman catcher looked to his left and spotted his Milwaukee Brewers teammates spilling out of the dugout.
Erik Kratz then looked straight ahead and saw his reliever standing alone.
So he took off for Josh Hader to give him “the biggest hug ... because you celebrate all your celebrations. Because you never know if you’re going to get another one,” Kratz said.
Photo: AFP
Wade Miley on Sunday pitched masterfully into the fifth inning before turning it over to a lights-out Milwaukee bullpen and Kratz kept up his torrid hitting as the Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 6-0 in Game 3 to sweep their National League Division Series.
The Brewers have won 11 straight dating to the regular season and advance to their first National League Championship Series since 2011.
They are to play the winner of the Dodgers-Braves series, starting on Friday at Miller Park and by the time that game starts, it will have been nearly three weeks since Milwaukee lost.
“One at a time, man. That’s what we’ve been saying, one at a time,” Christian Yelich said. “Focus on the now.”
With manager Craig Counsell making all the right moves, Milwaukee’s pitching staff held Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and the bruising Rockies to a combined two runs and 14 hits in the series.
Of the 28 innings in the matchup, Colorado scored in only one of them.
“The story of the series for us was certainly our pitching,” Counsell said.
It has been that way for a couple weeks now, including Milwaukee’s 3-1 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field in the National League Central tiebreaker.
The next day, the Rockies outlasted the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings to win the wild-card game.
Making his post-season debut, Miley toughed the elements — he wore short sleeves when the temperature was 8°C — and was even tougher on Rockies’ hitters. The wily left-hander allowed three hits over 4-2/3 innings.
A procession of five Brewers relievers then allowed just one hit.
With two on, Hader got Ian Desmond to fly out to end the ninth and start a celebration.
The first one to greet Hader was Kratz, who made his second post-season start and finished three for four with a double.
Acquired from the New York Yankees in May for a player to be named, Kratz is making quite a name for himself in the playoffs. He went five for eight in the series.
“I really feel like I’ve played my last game for the last 12 years because the game doesn’t owe anybody anything,” Kratz said. “When you understand that you appreciate these times more than anything else.”
Orlando Arcia and Keon Broxton hit back-to-back homers in the ninth off Wade Davis to make it 6-0 and end any sort of drama.
That was more than enough against a Colorado offense that was shut out twice in the series.
“We got into the dance. We fought, but we might not have played our best,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “Part of that is the opposition, how they played.”
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