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October 20, 1924 – American Family Field, Milwaukee
You could feel it from the first pitch — that cold Milwaukee air, that October weight. This wasn’t a night for fireworks or flash. This was a night for pitching. And Rich Alvarado, all 5-foot-10 of him, was the biggest man in the ballpark.
He didn’t just beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the League Championship Series. He muzzled them. Seven innings. Four hits. No runs. A fastball that moved just enough, a curve that fell off a table, and the calm of a guy who looks at October pressure and shrugs.
The Brewers won, 4–0, and if you didn’t know better, you’d think they’d done this a hundred times before.
Arizona came in hot — loud, confident, the kind of team that likes to make you feel uncomfortable in your own park. But Milwaukee doesn’t play that game. They play theirs. Patient, disciplined, cold-blooded baseball.
It started with C. Malagón, who didn’t wait long to make his mark. First inning. First pitch he saw. He sent it deep into the cool Wisconsin air, and by the time it landed in the left-field seats, the Brewers had already taken the only lead they’d need.
From there, the script was pure Milwaukee: timely hitting, clean defense, and a pitching staff that makes you think twice about taking the bat off your shoulder. Á. García added a solo shot in the sixth — a no-doubt laser to right that made it 3–0 — and J. Tidwell, who seems to have a flair for the dramatic, crushed one of his own in the eighth to put the exclamation point on the night.
The Diamondbacks? They looked lost. A good team — no question — but against Alvarado, they were guessing all night. Every swing late, every look back toward the dugout a little longer than the one before.
By the time J. Watende went to the bullpen, it was just about over. Joe Clay finished what Alvarado started, two perfect innings to lock it down, the sound of the crowd swelling with every strike.
Afterward, Watende said it simply: “If you pitch well, you give yourself some opportunities.” That’s Milwaukee baseball — simple, sharp, and suffocating.
The Brewers don’t boast. They don’t bark. They just play the game the right way and make you look foolish if you don’t.
Game 2 is tomorrow. The Diamondbacks will talk about adjustments, about finding their rhythm. But tonight? Tonight was all about Rich Alvarado and the quiet, methodical way the Brewers announced that this is their series to lose.
Sometimes October doesn’t roar. Sometimes it just hums — low, confident, and inevitable. That’s the sound you heard in Milwaukee tonight.
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