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Nothing has slowed the Brewers during this run, and certainly not the 49,658 fans who showed up on Sunday at Coors Field to experience the Rockies’ first home playoff game in nine years. The 47-degree weather at the start of the game didn’t distract Milwaukee, either, nor did the drizzle during the latter innings.
“The biggest strength for these guys is that they’re comfortable in their own skin,” Brewers Manager Craig Counsell said over the weekend.
“They know what they’re good at,’’ he added. “They’re not going to get out of their process.’’
During the series against the Rockies, the Brewers used the same formula that got them to the postseason: competent starting pitching, dominant relief pitching, sound fundamental play, a multifaceted offense and contributions from both stars and role players — a good number of them acquired by General Manager David Stearns over the past year.
Wade Miley, who signed a minor league deal with the Brewers during spring training and was not called up to the major leagues until May, tossed four and two-thirds scoreless innings on Sunday. Counsell was again aggressive with his strong bullpen, using Corey Knebel, Joakim Soria, Corbin Burnes, Jeremy Jeffress and Josh Hader to complete one victory after another.
Outfielder Christian Yelich, one of the Brewers’ biggest off-season acquisitions and this year’s front-runner for National League most valuable player honors, bedeviled the Rockies in this series. On Sunday, he walked in the first inning and came around to score the game’s first run. Jesus Aguilar, the Brewers’ burly first baseman who was picked up on waivers last year and became an All-Star this year, hit his first playoff home run to double the lead in the fourth.
And Erik Kratz, the journeyman catcher picked up in a minor trade with the Yankees in May, went 5 for 8 in the series, including three hits on Sunday. During the series, he became the oldest position player, at 38, to make his postseason debut since Lave Cross, 39, of the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series.
“We played together in rookie ball,” Kratz said of Cross, jokingly, before the game.
There were also solo home runs in Game 3 from the shortstop Orlando Arcia, who was demoted to the minor leagues because of his poor hitting but is starting now because of his glove, and outfielder Keon Broxton, a defensive substitute.
It all added up to the Brewers’ 11th victory in a row. And on Friday, they have a chance to make it 12.