MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers were doing everything in their power Saturday night, no matter how much they were asked by the horde of media in their clubhouse, not to think about it.
They were certainly not saying anything about it.
But, my God, after their latest miraculous comeback, winning 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Rays at frenzied American Family Field, how can they not start dreaming?
They are up 2 games to 0 over the Rays, halfway to their first World Series championship in franchise history.
“Your brain really wants to go there, but you can’t let it," said Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff, their longest-tenured player, who has been with the organization since 2014. “You know what I mean? It’s like Kobe Bryant used to say, 'The job is not finished.’ We still got a lot of baseball lot to play.
“But come on, we’re human, how can you not think about it?"
Really, it’s impossible for anyone in the entire state of Wisconsin after what we're witnessing these days.
It happened again Saturday. They were down 4-0 just five batters in the game. They were facing the hottest pitcher in baseball in Drew Rasmussen. And yet, somehow, some way, they’re sitting in their clubhouse, almost laughing that everyone is completely shocked but themselves by what they’re accomplishing.
It sounds completely absurd, but the Brewers have now had seven postseason victories in which they trailed by a combined score of 20-5, only to shut out the opposition the rest of the way by a combined score of 28-0.
Not a single run.
And now, for the second time in their last three postseason games, the Brewers overcame a 4-0 deficit to win, outscoring the Dodgers and Rays, 11-0 in those games.
What in the world is the win probability of that?
“I never look at that," Brewers third baseman David Hamilton said. “I feel like our win probability is 100% every game. I always feel like we’re going to win the game somehow, someway, and we keep doing it."
They way the Brewers look at it, they’ve done it all year, so why stop now?
“I think for us," Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said, “we want to win so badly that it’s never a shock when we win. That’s why we’re here, believing we can win every game, no matter what."
The Brewers became the first team in postseason history to win seven of their first eight games that they’ve trailed.
Is it a miracle?
“No, I just see the Brewers,’’ Woodruff said. “I’ve seen it all year. That’s why we had 103 wins."
Still, it’s almost impossible to explain what’s happening right now in America’s heartland..
The Brewers bullpen is unconscious, yielding a 1.24 ERA this postseason.
Reliever Aaron Ashby has not permitted a run in 15 ⅔ innings, and is the first pitcher in postseason history to get at least five outs in six consecutive appearances without allowing a run.
“He’s a stud, an absolute stud," Woodruff said, “who’s just excelling at the right time."
And outfielder Sal Frelick, who had not hit a home run off a left-handed pitcher since opening day, hits a 403-foot homer over the center-field fence off lefty Ian Seymour to tie the game in the sixth inning, with 43,245 fans at American Family Field screaming so loud that you can hear it in Green Bay.
“I had this weird feeling he was going to do it right there," Woodruff said. “That dude right there personifies our team and the way we play baseball. He never gives in, and neither do we."
Still, a home run, to center field, off a left-handed pitcher, in a World Series game?
Are you kidding?
“Dude, that was sick," Hamilton said. “I had a feeling something good was going to happen."
Frelick only hit four home runs in the regular season, and 21 in his four-year career.
“I’ve never seen him hit a dead-center homer even in BP," Brewers said baseman Jake Bauers said. “I can't be happier for the guy. He deserves that moment. Just talking about it, it’s going to make me cry man.’’
So, has he really never hit a homer to dead center, even in batting practice?
“I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt," said Brewers hitting coach Daniel Vogelbach: “I think he’s done it. He’s got a little manpower. But it was impressive."
Said Turang: "He’s stronger than people think he is. He’s strong. I think it was everyone’s favorite swing of the season."
If Frelick had done it before, he certainly didn’t realize it was happening this night, running so fast during his home-run trot that he crossed home in just 22 seconds, almost half the time it took Rays third baseman Junior Caminero during his last homer.
“It was sort of this blackout feeling," said Frelick, who actually faced Seymour in college when he played at Boston College with Seymour at Virginia Tech.
Did he think it was gone?
“I've never hit a homer that I thought was gone," said Frelick, “So, no, I didn't.’’
When reminded that it was not only the Brewers’ first home run of the postseason, but the first time their mascot, Bernie Brewer, was able to slide down the chalet in front of the home crowd in World Series history, Frelick was almost speechless.
“No way,’’ he said. “Is that true?"
Yep.
“Wow, that's really cool," Frelick said. “I only made him go down four times this whole year. Cool stat there."
Really, everything the Brewers are doing these days is pretty darn cool, epitomizing a relentlessness that no analytic spreadsheet can define.
Every time you want to count them out, they’re back.
They’re down one minute, and back atop the next.
They have now knocked off three Cy Young winners this postseason with Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Robbie Ray, World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and now Rasmussen, who had been unbeatable since August. He yielded a 1.05 ERA in September and a 1.29 ERA in October. He lasted just 3 ⅔ innings, his shortest outing since July 9 against the Yankees.
“Our offense is built to kind of chip away and wear on pitchers," Frelick said, “which I think can be good when you're trying to come back. …I think just having an offense built like that is really good for when you're down. Today, we go down four, we know how good that guy is over there, let's just wear on him, see if we can get him out of the game, get to their bullpen and really break the thing open."
Mission accomplished. Once again.
“We’ve been though this before,’’ Woodruff said. “There’s no panic, you know what I mean. We know we’re going to score runs. And we know we’re going to grind out at-bats. And we know the pitchers are going to put a stop to it.’’
Said Brewers manager Pat Murphy: “Guys, they don't give up. They believe, and they don't give up. They just keep going."
Just ask the Rays about it, whose heads are spinning after these two games.
“They grind every AB, every pitch," Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson said. “They’ve got a lot of fight. They scrap away all nine innings."
Said Rays reliever Liam Hicks: “They don’t give in. They foul off a ton of pitches. They’re not going to chase us out of the zone so you got to stay in the zone. They’re going to spoil pitches until they get theirs. Credit to their hitters. Tough lineup.’’
And perhaps an unbeatable team that may not be stopped until the World Series parade in downtown Milwaukee.
“The confidence we have right now, I’ve never seen anything like it," Bauers said. “Not even close. These guys are relentless, man. We’ve played every single game since he season started just like this one. Relentless. Focused. And nothing more.’’
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These Milwaukee Brewers are two games from immortality in World Series
