The Milwaukee Brewers chased Los Angeles Dodgers ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw early, then held on for a 6-5 victory to seize the advantage in their playoff series.
The Brewers scored five runs in three-plus innings against three-time Cy Young Award-winner Kershaw in Milwaukee.
The most surprising was a home run by rookie relief pitcher Brandon Woodruff in the third inning that knotted the score at 1-1 after Manny Machado’s second-inning homer put the Dodgers ahead.
Photo: AP
Woodruff, 25, led off the third after replacing Brewers starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez on the mound after the second inning.
He belted a 148kph fastball from Kershaw over the right field fence, notching the fifth hit of his MLB career. He also retired all six batters he faced, three with strikeouts.
“It’s something obviously coming in the day you don’t know in your wildest dreams that that’s going to happen, to be able to get an at-bat off Kershaw and hit a home run,” Woodruff said.
Photo: AP
Milwaukee gained another run in the third on Hernan Perez’s sacrifice fly. Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal endured a nightmare inning, committing a catcher’s interference on a lineout by Jesus Aguilar along with his second passed ball of the night and another error on a throw from the outfield.
Milwaukee pinch hitter Domingo Santana’s single scored two runs in the fourth to send Kershaw packing with no one out in another disappointing outing for the star pitcher.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts declined to be drawn into discussion of Kershaw’s post-season lapses and said he suffered from the sloppy defensive play of the Dodgers overall.
“First of all, we gave up too many bases,” Roberts said. “We didn’t play clean when he was in the game.”
The Brewers won their 12th straight game as they took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series with Game 2 also in Milwaukee yesterday.
The winners of the series are to face either the reigning champions Houston Astros or the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
The Astros and Red Sox were to open the American League Championship Series in Boston yesterday.
The Dodgers, trying to earn a return trip to the World Series after falling in Game 7 to the Astros last season, trailed 6-1 through seven innings, but scored three runs in the eighth to trim the deficit to two.
They put the potential tying run at third base in the ninth inning after Joc Pederson walked and then scored when Chris Taylor belted a triple to center that Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain could not keep his glove on at the wall.
However, Brewers reliever Corey Knebel struck out Justin Turner to end the game.
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