Brewers survive Game 4 thriller to advance to NLCS

SAN DIEGO – The Milwaukee Brewers are onto the National League Championship Series for the second straight year.

And this time, they did it on the road.

The Brewers snapped a 12-game road losing streak in the postseason that tied the all-time record in Major League Baseball in their own fashion Oct. 8 at Petco Park, littering the bases with runners all night and overpowering the San Diego Padres with their arms for a 3-1 victory in Game 4 of the National League Division Series.

GAME 4 BOX SCORE: Brewers 3, Padres 1

Here are three immediate takeaways from the clincher.

At age 22, Jackson Chourio has quite the case for greatest postseason performer in franchise history.With his rocket back up the middle to score Garrett Mitchell in the fifth, Chourio drove in his 17th career playoff run, most ever by a Brewers player.

Mitchell led off the inning by dragging a triple over the first base bag, missing a foul ball by inches, and scooting to third. That was the final pitch thrown by reliever Robbie Ray, who was replaced by Bradgley Rodriguez, the flamethrower who has been Milwaukee’s nemesis in the middle innings this series.

After a Joey Ortiz chopper right to third, Chourio got the run home by peppering a fastball in off the plate just past Jake Cronenworth’s glove up the middle.

That gave Chourio 17 postseason RBI, surpassing Ryan Braun’s mark of 16. Chourio did it in 16 games, whereas Braun played in 27.

Chourio set the franchise record for postseason home runs with his fifth all-time in Game 1 of the series against Ray.

Many pitchers have owed Joey Ortiz a nice dinner for his fine defensive work on the infield. But this time, Ortiz is the one who owes it.

With one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the first, Ortiz opted not to throw to first to complete what appeared to be an almost-surefire double play after taking a Ty France grounder to third base for a force.

It wasn’t initially clear what Ortiz was thinking. It didn’t seem that he forgot how many outs there were, as his first move was back toward the mound rather than the dugout.

Starting pitcher Robert Gasser then walked Austin Hays to load the bases but escaped what could have been a disastrous situation by getting Xander Bogaerts to pop out for the third out.

The game could have easily swung in San Diego’s favor and gotten the third-largest crowd in stadium history into it early; instead, Gasser settled in and lasted four innings, allowing a Fernando Tatis Jr. solo homer to lead off the third and nothing more.

Aaron Ashby led all National League relievers in innings pitched with 87 in the regular season but never got more than eight outs in a single game – until now.

Pat Murphy’s personal RAV4 entered with nobody out in the fifth and didn’t depart until he completed the bottom of the seventh by freezing pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar on a curveball.

Ashby’s nine outs bridged the game from Gasser to Abner Uribe, and featured some of his best pitching when the moment called for it.

He struck out Samad Taylor swinging on a down-and-away changeup that had been set up perfectly by a sinker and curve. The next three hitters at the top of the Padres order grounded out before Ty France worked a one-out walk in the sixth.

Next came Ashby’s best sequence of the night. Austin Hays, in the lineup to be a lefty masher, sold out for a sinker and waved at a first-pitch changeup. William Contreras called for another, which Ashby spiked, but that didn’t deter him from going back to it again. Ashby got another whiff on a changeup to go ahead, 1-2. To put Hays away, Contreras called for a curveball – staying off-speed but a movement profile to get Hays to swing over it.

It worked according to plan. Hays chopped a one-hopper right to Ashby, who started an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play.

The Padres put the tying run at the plate with two outs in the seventh when Jake Cronenworth walked on a full count, but the curveball worked exquisitely for Ashby again as he caught Taylor looking for velocity and spun two in a row in the zone that left the San Diego left fielder browsing.

It has been a postseason of October redemption for Ashby

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers survive Game 4 thriller to advance to NLCS