There is an old Soviet joke my father and I have loved for many decades. It goes as follows (I will attempt to abbreviate):

Leonid Brezhnev wakes up in the morning, looks out his bedroom window, and sees the rising sun, and says: “Good morning, Comrade Sun! How is your work coming?”
— “Very well, Comrade Brezhnev, and yours?”
— “Very well, thank you!”

At midday, Brezhnev looks outside his window at the Kremlin, and sees the sun high in the sky, and says: “Good day, Comrade Sun! How is your work coming?”
— “Very well, Comrade Brezhnev, and yours?”
— “Very well, thank you!”

Then, in the evening, as he is leaving for home, Brezhnev looks at the setting sun. “Good evening, Comrade Sun! How was your work today?”
— “The hell with you, Brezhnev, I’m in the West now!”

And so, as all eyes shift to the final game of the toughest NL West division race since 1993, the Braves are in an enviable position after playing four tight games with the Brewers, scoring 12 runs and yielding six.

It was, indeed, the worst offensive drought our offense has suffered since June 20-29, when we played 11 games in 9 days against the Cardinals, Mets, and Reds and scored a total of 25 runs across all those games, going 5-6. But scoring 3.0 runs a game is far better than scoring 1.5 runs a game, and that mathematical fact is the clearest explanation for why virtually every pundit picked wrong and Jim Powell’s new team is still in the playoffs while his old team is heading home for the winter.

Of course, the Brewers did not score one run a game by happenstance. They did so because we wished them to. Here, then, is what our starting pitchers did: Morton, Anderson, and Fried twirled 20 1/3 of the 35 innings, they yielded four runs, and they struck out 29 men while walking two.

And here is what our bullpen did: Chavez, Jackson, Matzek, Minter, Smith, and Ynoa threw 14 2/3 innings, they yielded two runs, and they struck out 19 men while walking seven.

In this game, the Brewers doubled their previous offensive output, and to his credit, Snitker managed with his foot on the gas. When Morton started the fourth by giving up a run on two singles and a walk, the skipper showed a quick hook and went to Jesse Chavez, who yielded a second RBI single before finally ending the threat, but the tally remained in reach, just 2-0.

The offense immediately counterpunched by loading the bases and inspiring Counsell to go to his own pen. Snitker then won the chess match â€” he pinch-hit with Orlando Arcia, which inspired Counsell to bring in his righty, Hunter Strickland; Snitker then burned the just-announced Arcia, pinch-hitting with Eddie Rosario, who hit a two-run single to even the score.

The fifth brought more antacid fodder: Snitker pulled Chavez in favor of Huascar Ynoa, who probably was been in the original plan as a possible long reliever for this game if Morton didn’t have much in the tank. But his command, as it has been lately, was not precise. Leadoff batter Christian Yelich singled on a 2-1 slider, which tells you that Ynoa was struggling to throw his best pitch by them. Avisail Garcia gamely helped by waving at three sliders in a row, but then up strode the nemesis of Game 1, Rowdy Tellez, who utterly destroyed a cement mixer for his second 2-run homer of the series. Ynoa got out of the inning, but he would not be retained for a second.

Meanwhile, the offense did just as they had the previous inning: they loaded the bases and scored two runs, this time on a fielder’s choice in front of a single. When Snitker pinch-hit for Ynoa, it was his third pinch-hitter of the game already and only a tie game in the fifth inning. He ran the risk of a brutal extra inning slog, if the offense couldn’t keep it going. But Snitker was playing for a short game, not keeping his powder dry for Game 5. Hard to argue.

The next two innings were uneventful as both pens did their jobs. A.J. Minter deserves special commendation — he got four quick outs in his first and only appearance in the series. He isn’t Matzek, but when he’s on, he’s a bear.

And then came the moment that none of you will be learning for the first time by reading this. Craig Counsell did what he ought to have done: he brought in Josh Hader, the best closer in baseball, to face the Braves’ 9-1-2 hitters: lefty Rosario, righty Swanson, lefty Freeman, followed by the switch-hitter Albies. It was the right move on paper: season on the line, you want Hader facing two lefties and the rest of the top of the order.

There was only one minor niggle, likely a small sample size blip: even though he’s a lefty, Freddie Freeman came to the matchup with a walk and a homer in five plate appearances against Hader — a 1.400 regular-season OPS. Ordinarily you and I and JonathanF would say that’s predictively useless.

Of course, Freddie Freeman absolutely destroyed a first-pitch hanging slider to right-center and sent the Braves to their first lead of the game and their last of the series. As sdp said, “Pay the man. Give him the check and let him fill it out.”

Smith came on in the top of the final frame, gave up a leadoff single, and then induced a foul-out and two punchouts. The Brewers learned what we already learned the hard way: just having the best pitching in baseball won’t punch your ticket in October. Better luck next year, guys.

Bring on the Giants or Dodgers!