Anyone still upset about missing the showdown last night between CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander, should have tuned in Saturday afternoon.
The Brewers' Yovani Gallardo and Arizona's Ian Kennedy were locked in a classic, postseason pitcher's duel. But thanks to some help from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, Gallardo emerged victories, pitching the Brewers to a 4-1 victory over the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
The young right-hander went eight innings, allowing just one run on four hits with a walk. He struck out nine, tying him with Don Sutton for the franchise single-game postseason record.
In the early going, though, it looked like Gallardo might find himself in some first inning trouble.
Willie Bloomquist led off the game on a first-pitch single. After Aaron Hill popped out to second, Justin Upton slapped a base hit into left field. Bloomquist took off on the play but was caught at the plate on a perfect throw from Ryan Braun to catcher Jonathan Lucroy.
"It was big," Gallardo said. "He made a great throw. That base hit by Upton. Who knows? That run scores, it might be a whole different ballgame. But I had a bunch of great guys behind me. Kind of like a place like that, with the first inning, and after that I was able to settle in."
After that, Gallardo was spot on. He retiried 22 of his final 25 batters. The only blemish on Gallardo's day came in the eighth, when Ryan Roberts led off with a home run to center field, but Gallardo recovered by getting the next three batters to strike out.
Gallardo was consistently low in the zone with good command his fastball, which was clocked regularly between 92-94 MPH.
"That's where you want to be, that's where you want to live as a pitcher," said catcher Jonathan Lucroy. "Most guys you see command both sides of the plate down. As a right-handed hitter, down and away for me is really, really difficult to hit especially when they're throwing hard. If you can command that with two or three pitches down there, that's tough. He did that today and did a very good job."
Gallardo's effort was matched for much of the game by Kennedy, who entered the game tied for the National League lead with 21 victories during the regular season. The right-hander kept Milwaukee's offense in check most of the day
The Brewers finally got to Kennedy in the fourth. Ryan Braun led off with a single and advanced to third on a Prince Fielder double. Kennedy loaded the bases by hitting Rickie Weeks and then Jerry Hairston, starting the opener at third base, put the Brewers on the board with a sac fly to center.
Kennedy made it through the fifth, working out of a two-out, two-on jam but couldn't replicate that success in the sixth. After Weeks and Hairston flew out to left and right, respecitively, Yuniesky Betancourt tripled.
With two outs, Kennedy could have taken his chances by pitching around Lucroy to get to Gallardo and get out of the inning. Without getting much to hit, Lucroy took his chances and, by his own admission, hacked at a 1-2 change-up that dropped in shallow left, between Bloomquist and Gerardo Parra, for an RBI single and made it 2-0, Brewers.
"The balls he was throwing me were off the plate," Lucroy said. "I just got lucky and dropped one in there. I was hacking right there because I'd rather try to get some hits and make something happen than have them walk me and pitch to Yovani."
The Brewers put the game out of reach an inning later. With two outs, Braun doubled for his third hit of the day. Fielder followed and, down 0-1 in the count, ripped a hanging curveball 426 feet down the right field line for his second career postseason home run.
That ended the day for Kennedy, who went 6.2 innings allowing eight hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Braun and Fielder combined for five of those hits.
John Axford came on to work the ninth and pitched a perfect inning for his first career postseason save.
The series resumes Sunday with Game 2 at Miller Park. Zack Greinke takes the mound for the Brewers with Daniel Hudson going for Arizona. First pitch is at 4:07 p.m.
