The Los Angeles Dodgers were able to tie up the National League Championship Series at a game apiece on Saturday afternoon, coming back to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3, in another thriller at Miller Park.
All the talk going into the series was about how good the Brewers’ bullpen was, but they were not able to hold onto a 3-0 lead after Wade Miley tossed 5.2 shutout innings.
The reliever who blew the lead was right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, who had 15 saves and a 1.23 ERA in 73 appearances in 2018 en route to his first career All-Star Game appearance.
With the bases loaded in the seventh inning, Jeffress walked Austin Barnes to cut the Brewers’ lead to 3-2. He then gave up a two-run home run to Justin Turner in the eighth, which wound up being a game-winner.
When asked what happened in those specific at-bats, Jeffress chalked it up to the Dodgers getting lucky, via Tim Healey of Newsday:
Jeremy Jeffress, what happened on the bases-loaded walk to Austin Barnes?
"He just got lucky," Jeffress said.
And Justin Turner's crushed go-ahead homer?
"He got lucky," Jeffress said.
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) October 14, 2018
Jeffress may feel that it’s luck, but in the first two games of the series, the Dodgers have pegged him for five hits, a walk and two runs in 1.1 innings.
The Milwaukee bullpen as a whole has given up eight runs in 10.1 innings, which no one could have expected coming into the series.
Going into that at-bat, Turner was just 1-for-8 with four strikeouts in the series, so he certainly was due for a big hit and that’s exactly what he was able to do to help lead his team to a victory.
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