ATLANTA – Freddie Freeman won the 13th inning, ending the longest goalless duel in postseason history when the Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 in Wednesday’s NL Wild Card Series opener.
The Ostmeister Braves won the first game of a postseason series for the first time since the NL Division Series 2001 and can conclude the best-of-three series on Thursday. If they do, there will be a record streak of 10 direct playoff round losses.
What began as a pitching showdown between Cy Young rivals Trevor Bauer from the Reds and Atlanta’s Max Fried turned into a strike competition.
The teams joined for a postseason record of 37 strikers – 21 from the Braves. After a couple of hits in the 13th against Archie Bradley, Freeman drove a hit ahead of Amir Garrett into midfield to end a game that dragged on for 4 1/2 hours.
Freeman, a four-time All-Star, spawned another big year in a pandemic-shortened season in July after such a fierce battle with COVID-19 that he said he prayed, “Please don’t take me.”
AJ Minter escaped a base-laden one-time traffic jam up in 13th place to claim victory.
The clubs used 14 pitchers together and it took so long for the lights to be on on the 13th in Truist Park for a game that started shortly after noon.
It was historically the first postseason game to go scoreless after 11 innings, but hardly a masterpiece.
Since the designated runner is no longer in play on the second base for postseason games, two teams that rely heavily on the long ball took turns and simply hit the plate.
Most of the time, all they stirred up was a stiff breeze.
Bauer lived up to his bill as one of the best pitchers in baseball. The pronounced right-handed was the first pitcher in the history of the big league to record 12 strikeouts without walks and to allow no runs and two or fewer hits in a postseason.
Bauer was lifted after withdrawing the first two thugs in eighth and taking the Braves strike on the way to the dugout. He allowed only one hit past the infield and set a Cincinnati postseason record with 12 strikeouts. The previous mark was held by Homer Bailey, who fanned 10 in Game 3 of the 2012 NL Division Series against the San Francisco Giants.
The Braves’ only real threat against Bauer came on the sixth when Ronald Acuna Jr. ran a brace to the center wall.
Freeman brought the runner with him by pulling a grounder to the second baseman, but Bauer pulled out of the NL home run and RBI king Marcell Ozuna in a foul popup right in front of the screen behind the home plate. Travis d’Arnaud swung out to end the inning.
Fried almost went bad for bad luck with the Cincinnati ace, working on seven goalless innings. He gave up six hits, hit five and left with no one.
TRAINER ROOM
Reds: Senzel seemed to be blocking his left shoulder and dived back to the first on a pickoff throw in the third. The coach came out to check on him, but Senzel stayed in the game after twisting his arm in a windmill motion a few times.
Braves: There were injury concerns after Atlanta’s last regular season run but everyone did well in the playoffs. Acuna (wrist) and Riley (quadriceps) both started Game 1, while RH Chris Martin (groin) finished scoreless eighth.
NEXT
Reds: RH Luis Castillo (4-6, 3.21 ERA) starts his first postseason. He was a 15-game winner and made the All-Star Game for the first time in 2019.
Braves: Rookie RH Ian Anderson (3-2, 1.95) gave Atlanta’s troubled rotation a boost when he was called up from the alternate training location in late August. The selection for the 2016 first round consisted of at least 5 2/3 innings in four of his six starts.
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