Contreras comes up clutch as Crew captures Game 1 win in NLDS

MILWAUKEE -- William Contreras didn’t have to hustle down the line on this one.

The Brewers were happy to watch him trot.

The All-Star catcher who was benched for failing to hustle during the final week of the regular season, playing for the team that won 103 games in the regular season while hitting the fewest home runs in the National League, showed that the start of the postseason means a clean slate when Contreras connected for a go-ahead solo shot in the seventh inning of the Brewers’ 3-2 win over the Padres in Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Saturday night at American Family Field.

“These are the type of games that I like,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “I like playing in these intense games. Fortunately, we were able to play our brand of baseball both offensively and defensively. So, this is the first of many to come.”

With one on and one out in the top of the ninth against closer Trevor Megill, Ty France hit a deep drive to left field that struck the cables on the roof of the ballpark. Was it headed fair or foul? Impossible to tell. But there was at least a decent chance it would have left the yard.

Instead, the ball settled in the glove of left fielder Jackson Chourio and was ruled an out upon replay review. And a batter later, the Brewers had secured the win.

“At first, it was, ‘Oh, crap.’ And then the home-plate umpire came up and said it was live no matter what,” Megill said. “Four years in this stadium, I’ve never seen that before. Just glad it worked in our favor.”

The Brewers got four shaky innings from ace starter Jacob Misiorowski and won anyway. They got a tying, two-run home run from Chourio off Padres starter Robbie Ray in the third inning that made Chourio, all of 22 years old, Milwaukee’s all-time leader with five postseason home runs. Then the Brewers got a go-ahead shot from Contreras off the Padres’ ace setup man, Adrian Morejon, a left-hander who yielded four home runs in 86 innings during the regular season.

It was a satisfying trot around the bases for Contreras, who means so much to the Brewers’ vaunted run prevention unit as Major League Baseball’s leader in innings behind the plate during the regular season, and who led the Majors and set a Brewers record this season with 89 RBIs while playing catcher.

Contreras is not the type of man who likes to have his commitment questioned, but that’s what occurred during the Brewers’ final road series of the regular season in Philadelphia, on the night the Brewers secured the first 100-win season in club history. After Contreras didn’t hustle to first base on a bouncer that Phillies shortstop Trea Turner bobbled, Brewers manager Pat Murphy pulled Contreras in favor of a pinch-hitter. It was meant to send a message to the team that the high standards required to contend every season on a tight budget apply to everyone, even three-time All-Stars.

Contreras got the message. When he grounded out in his first at-bat the following night, he dived headfirst into first base. Murphy smiled in the dugout. He later called it "beautiful."

Not as beautiful, perhaps, as the fly ball that left the game in the hands of the Brewers’ well-rested bullpen. Left-hander DL Hall, who rose to a high-leverage role late in the regular season, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning and secured the first two outs of the eighth before turning it over, with the tying runner on third base, to Megill, who struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. to preserve the lead and then worked around the wacky France flyout in the ninth to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the series.

In all best-of-five postseason series, teams taking a 1-0 lead have gone on to win the series 116 of 160 times (73%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams taking a 1-0 lead at home have gone on to win 42 of 56 times (75%).