MILWAUKEE — Some people play do crossword puzzles for fun, other people listen to podcasts. Jake Bauers works opposing team's aces until their arms are ready to fall off.
Bauers drew a 12-pitch walk off Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third inning of Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday, Oct. 12. His at-bat lasted more than seven minutes, and he'd fouled off six pitches before finally getting the fourth ball.
"It was a blast, honestly. It was a blast. Any time you can get that locked in doing anything, it's, to me, one of the most enjoyable experiences I think a human being can have," Bauers said after the game, a 7-4 win that gives the Milwaukee Brewers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
More importantly, the at-bat changed the momentum of the game. The two-out walk to Bauers loaded the bases, and Christian Yelich followed with a two-RBI single. Though the Dodgers would re-take the lead with two runs in the fifth, it was obvious to everyone at American Family Field that it was temporary.
Bauers' had put the Brewers in control, of the game and maybe the entire series.
"That changes the game," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "It was a huge at-bat. How many pitches? A 12-pitch walk? It took seven minutes, somebody told me. You think about that and what it does to a pitcher. (Yamamoto) can get through an inning in less than seven minutes, and he does all the time. He's one of the best pitchers in the land.
"It was a great at-bat," Murphy added. "I think a turning point, I really do."
Bauers took two called strikes in the first four pitches he saw from Yamamoto. After a ball on the fifth pitch, he started fouling. One pitch after another. The Dodgers had a chance to put an end to it, with one ball dropping between Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernandez near the tarp down the third-base line and another dropping between Muncy and Will Smith.
"It just got to a certain point where it was straight compete mode. A little bit of like blackout, just kind of in the flow, a little bit competing," Bauers said. "I knew that was a moment where the guys needed something, the team needed something. It was either I'm going to get something to hit here or I'm going to see enough pitches to take a walk."
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Yamamoto said he was trying to work the edge of the strike zone, but Bauers wasn't giving an inch.
"He just stayed on it. He did a good job," Yamamoto said.
As Yelich waited in the on-deck circle, he said he knew he couldn't let Bauers' at-bat go to waste. He took the first pitch for a ball, then laced a curveball in the middle of the zone into left-center.
"You want to follow a great at-bat like that with a good at-bat," Yelich said. "I wanted to make sure I was going to swing at a good pitch and put a good swing on something, and fortunately I was able to do that."
For the second consecutive game, the Brewers had chased a Dodgers ace early. Yamamoto's 2⅔ innings matched his shortest postseason start, and the three runs were the most he's allowed in his last five starts.
"As the at-bat was going on, I was just enjoying it," Bauers said. "I was honestly just having a blast."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jake Bauers' at-bat 'changes the game' and he had a blast doing it