The last time the Milwaukee Brewers reached the National League Championship Series was 1982. They sported the logo you see above. It was the glory days of Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, back when the Brew Crew was in the American League. Unfortunately, they lost to their current division rival, the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, as Catcher Darrell Porter became a hated enemy of epic proportions for all baseball fans in beer town.
But tonight they outlasted Arizona, as Nyjer Morgan drove in Carlos Gomez with the game winning run in the bottom of the tenth.
In NLDS game 5, Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo, who owned game one with a masterful winning performance out-dueled his Arizona Diamondbacks counterpart Ian Kennedy in this one. Kennedy, who was a ridiculous 21-4, 2.88 ERA on the season, threw 6 innings and gave up 2 runs, they were earned, 5 K, 2BB.
Gallardo put up nearly identical numbers, also in six innings of work, except he gave up one less run. And that made all the difference heading into the ninth inning, as Milwaukee held a 2-1 lead. Closer John Axford and his “I really should be wearing a black cape and stove pipe hat while I go put a damsel in distress by tying her to a railroad track” mustache entered the game, and proceeded to blow his first save since September 18th.
The bullpen failed. But in the bottom of the tenth Ax-man was goat no more as it was the D-Backs bullpen failing, J.J. Putz will now be known as the putz of this series in Phoenix as he surrendered the decisive run.
Nyjer Morgan also known as “T Clutch” redeemed Axford, and the Brewers moved to 82-1 when leading after 8 innings.
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