Almost the entire baseball world expected that the duel between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks would be a defensive one where the pitchers would be in the spotlight. But it was anything but that in the first game tonight (Tuesday).
Indeed, in the first inning, the Brewers opened the scoring with Carlos Santana’s single which pushed Christian Yelich to the plate.
DBacks starting pitcher Brandon Pfaadt, however, broke the deadlock by striking out Mark Canha, Sal Frelick and Willy Adames on three strikes in quick succession, all with two runners on the trails. The Brewers then missed a very good chance to hurt the Arizona team early in the game.
However, that didn’t stop the Wisconsin representatives from adding to their lead in the next round. After a single from the unloved Josh Donaldson and a sacrifice bunt from Brice Turang, Tyrone Taylor catapulted Pfaadt’s offering to the other side of the fence, bringing the score to 3-0 in favor of the Brewers.
With Corbin Burnes on the mound, one would have thought that the Diamondbacks were over. But this was far from being the case, since from their very next at-bat, Gerardo Perdomo started the push with a single, followed by two consecutive long balls coming from Corbin Caroll and Ketel Marte. The tie was created at three everywhere.
Then, in the bottom of the third inning, Milwauee put two runners in scoring position, which sounded the death knell for Gunner Pfaadt. His successor, Joe Mantiply, however, suppressed the threat.
This missed chance by the Brewers came back to them in the face immediately after, as Gabriel Moreno cannoned Burnes’ shot far to center field. I guess the Toronto Blue Jays would have liked to have him in their lineup this afternoon…
Who would have thought that at the start of the fifth inning both starters would be sitting warm in their dugout?
It was also during this same fifth that the Brewers sabotaged another opportunity to hurt the Serpents, filling the paths with still no outs, but not making anyone cross the plate.
The rest of the game was smooth sailing, with the Diamondbacks offense adding to the lead and the bullpen muzzling the Milwaukee offense and maintaining priority until the 6-3 victory.
These same two teams will face each other tomorrow (Wednesday), at the same time, i.e. 7:08 p.m. Quebec time. For the occasion, Zac Gallen will automatically be for Arizona, while the starter for the Brewers is still not announced, the loss of Brandon Woodruff drastically changing the plans.
