The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks took the field on Sunday for Game 2 of their NLDS matchup. The Brewers took a 1-0 series lead on Saturday and had a chance to seize control with a win on Sunday before heading to Arizona. And they took advantage, using a big inning to turn a close game into a 9-4 blowout win.
Brewers vs. Diamondbacks, Game 2: Highlights And Notes From The Live-Blog
Below are some of the highlights, taken from the Baseball Nation live-blog of Game 2.
Pitching on short rest, Zach Greinke started strong, giving up a single before retiring the side. But the inning wasn’t without controversy, as Grant Brisbee explained.
In the first inning of Game Two, Aaron Hill hit a rocket down the left-field line off Zack Greinke. It bounced off the top of the wall and caromed right to Ryan Braun, who fired the ball back into the infield. Left-field umpire James Hoye called it a foul ball, and Hill had to settle for a single later in the at-bat.
Replays showed that the ball was clearly fair. It wasn’t off the foul line -- it actually hit off the wall a few inches before the foul line started. It wasn’t even close.
In the bottom of the inning, Milwaukee broke the scoreless tie, taking a 2-0 lead on a Ryan Braun home run. Because these are always fun, here’s the location of the hanging changeup Braun took deep to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.
Arizona got a run back in the top of the second when Paul Goldschmidt answered Braun’s dinger with one of his own to cut the Brewers’ lead to 2-1. But the Brewers 2-1 lead quickly turned into a 4-1 lead, and the Diamondbacks were suddenly on the ropes -- not just in the game, but the series as well.
The Diamondbacks are down against Zack Greinke, and they're already down 1-0 in the series. It's not exactly panic time yet, but it's probably time for them to shake their right leg nervously and fidget a lot.
But the Diamondbacks had an answer in the form of another home run, this time from Chris Young. It was as if a lightbulb went off and we all figured out why both teams were in the playoffs.
Miller Park is a little homer-happy, but mostly for left-handed hitters. It plays fair for righties, for the most part, so it’s not as if Sunday’s homer barrage is because the park is a launching pad. The Brewers and Diamondbacks just have a lot of players who can hit home runs. That might be why those two teams made the playoffs. Just a guess.
Justin Upton joined in on the party a short time later, showing off his strength to tie the game.
And against Zack Greinke, he just brutalized a ball, driving it into the upper deck in left. And just like that, the Diamondbacks have life again. Upton's homer drove in Aaron Hill to tie the game at 4-4.
But all that work to come back went for naught as the Brewers blew open the game in the sixth. A safety squeeze gave the Brewers the lead, and then they added another four runs for good measure. Know who wasn’t happy? This guy.
He looks happy, but I assure you he wasn’t.
With a five-run lead, Milwaukee coasted to the finish line, taking care of the Diamondbacks to take complete control of the series. The final score in Milwaukee: Brewers 9, Diamondbacks 4.
For more on this game, visit the rest of the live-blog and check out Grant Brisbee’s recap.
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