Freddie Freeman on Tuesday crushed the winning home run as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 to book their place in MLB’s National League Championship Series.
After a roller-coaster battle at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, veteran first baseman Freeman slammed a two-out homer into center field in the bottom of the eighth inning off Brewers closer Josh Hader.
Braves reliever Will Smith then had Kolten Wong caught by catcher Travis D’Arnaud after a bunt pop out to start the ninth before striking out Willy Adames with a 132kph slider.
Photo: Brett Davis-USA Today
Smith then dismissed Brewers star Christian Yelich with three strikes to spark wild celebrations and send the Braves back to the championship series for a second straight year.
“I just tried to get a good swing on it,” Freeman said of his winning blast against Hader, one of the best closers in baseball, who had not conceded a home run since July 28.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” Freeman said. “I was feeling good all game, worked on some stuff before the game and it worked out.”
The Braves are to face either the San Francisco Giants or the Los Angeles Dodgers for a place in the MLB World Series.
The Dodgers on Tuesday forced a decisive Game 5 in San Francisco on Thursday after Mookie Betts and Will Smith homered to set up a series-leveling 7-2 victory at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers had been scoreless in a 1-0 defeat in Game 3 on Monday, but came alive in Game 4.
Trea Turner and Chris Taylor got early hits to put the Dodgers 2-0 ahead before Betts drilled a two-run shot off Jarlin Garcia in the bottom of the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
The Giants pulled one back when Darin Ruf ground out to score Evan Longoria in the top of the fifth, but Betts’ sacrifice fly allowed Bellinger to come home in the fifth inning to make it 5-1.
After the Giants closed to 5-2 in the eighth, Dodgers catcher Smith made the game safe with deep fly ball to center field to seal victory.
Dodgers ace Walker Buehler, coming off short rest, bottled up the Giants offense early on, striking out four in 4.1 innings.
“I felt great, probably the best the second half of the year,” Buehler said. “We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but tonight I felt pretty good.”
Elsewhere, Jose Altuve blasted a three-run home run as the Houston Astros routed the Chicago White Sox 10-1 to reach the American League Championship Series for a fifth straight season.
The Game 4 win sealed a 3-1 series victory and sends the Astros into a best-of-seven series against the Boston Red Sox, with Game 1 set for tomorrow.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS