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Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
MILWAUKEE — The moment was precisely as the Milwaukee Brewers scripted it. But just like in Hollywood sometimes, a well-crafted script doesn’t always translate to a satisfying ending.
At least not for the Brewers and certainly not for the star of that script, closer Devin Williams, who gave up a season-turning three-run homer to Mets slugger Pete Alonso with one out in the ninth, turning a 2-0 Milwaukee lead into a 3-2 deficit. New York went on to win 4-2 on Thursday, taking the decisive game of the three-game NL Wild Card Series.
Just like that, a thrilling season for one of baseball’s most exciting and close-knit young teams was done. Afterward and true to form, Williams faced the media and took the blame.
“This is the closest team that I have played on,” Williams said. “That it makes it that much more disappointing. Everyone did their job except me. I feel like I let everyone down.”
The setup was perfect. Brewers up two, ninth inning, their star closer taking the ball. Williams converted 14 of 15 save chances after returning from injury during the season. He was flawless closing out Milwaukee’s Game 2 win just 24 hours earlier. The entire ballpark was primed to erupt.
“It was a great script for us,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Devin has been as good a closer as there is in baseball for the 2½ years that he’s played.”
Sure, some nervous energy crept into the ballpark when Francisco Lindor drew a walk, just holding back on a swing on ball four. Then Brandon Nimmo lined a screaming single to right.
And, sure, Alonso was stomping to the plate, squeezing the handle of his bat so furiously that he might have left a trail of sawdust behind him. And, sure, Williams fell behind 3-1. But, still, this was Devin Williams, and Alonso, dangerous as he is, had not homered in over two weeks. And Williams? He allowed just one homer all season.
“He’s the best closer in the game,” Brewers starter Tobias Myers said after throwing the most memorable game of his young career, shutting down the Mets for five innings. “It’s just a crazy game we play, it can happen like that. But no one loses faith in that guy. He’s one of the best for a reason.”
Williams said the pitch, one of his signature changeups, on the outer part of the plate, wasn’t terrible. Just the results were.
“It could have been better, but it wasn’t the worst pitch I’ve ever thrown,” Williams said. “I wanted to go away with it. I got it there. It was a good piece of hitting.”
As American Family Field fell into a kind of humming silence that was almost like reverence, demons of Octobers past raced around the rafters of the enclosed ballpark. As close as the Brewers were to finally breaking through, the result was the same — five straight series defeats over the past six years, all coming after the Brewers fell one win shy of the 2018 World Series.
It happened again.
“You can look at history, if you want,” Murphy said. “But I think the best part of history, if you want to report on history, is the Brewers have been to the playoffs in six out of seven years with one of the smallest budgets and in one of the smallest markets in baseball.”
In the corridor outside of both clubhouses, the postgame scenes were as wildly different as you can imagine. Family and friends of the Brewers consoled each other. Around the bend, just out of sight, raucous cheering and yelling could be heard from the Mets’ side of the facility. It was a stark portrait of playoff baseball, just off the field.
Inside the Brewers’ clubhouse, the closeness of the team was evident as the players and coaches circled around and around, hugging, hand slapping, whispering encouragements to each other. And of course, no one was going to let Williams carry the burden alone.
When told about Williams’ comments, outfielder Sal Frelick said, “Devin is way professional, so he’s obviously going to say that to you guys. But we all know that’s not his alone out there.
“[We had] plenty of opportunities early in the game. We left a lot of guys in scoring position. Obviously, we went to the ninth with a two-run lead and everyone did their job to the best of their ability. That’s a team loss there.”
Frelick, who homered twice during the season, hit a dramatic shot in the seventh one pitch after pinch-hitter Jake Bauers put a charge into the crowd with a shot to right. Alas, such triumphs are impossible to celebrate when a must-win game goes south.
“That’s up there with the birth of my child, for sure,” Bauers said. “It’s tough, man. It’s tough to be excited about it right now.”
The homers gave the Brewers the cushion they carried into the ninth. The two-run margin was far from insurmountable, especially for a Mets team that has demonstrated a flair for clutch dramatics. But the Brewers had Williams.
The script, to that point, was letter perfect.
“Just a lot of disappointment,” Williams said. “We worked all year to get to this point. They got me a two-run lead there in the ninth. That’s how you draw it up. I couldn’t come through for the boys. No one feels worse than I do.”