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    • Brewers closer Devin Williams bears the blame for the loss to the Mets
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    Brewers closer Devin Williams bears the blame for the loss to the Mets

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    Pat Murphy, just minutes removed from his Milwaukee Brewers’ devastating loss in the National League wild-card series to the New York Mets at American Family Field, told reporters that he thought some of his players may have been trying to exceed capabilities. night.

    Closer Devin Williams was the only one he mentioned by name.

    “I think Devin tried to do too much, to be honest,” the manager said of his ninth-inning performance, which will go down as one of the toughest in franchise history. Williams had a two-run lead and needed three outs to take his team to the NL Division Series in Philadelphia, but Williams was seriously faltering.

    He allowed a three-run home run to Pete Alonso and then an RBI single to Starling Marte, completely flipping the script in a 4-2 loss that extended the Brewers’ postseason futility for at least another year.

    “He was so excited,” Murphy continued, handing Williams a perfect clear if he had wanted to take it.

    But the 30-year-old refused.

    “I’m not going to make excuses,” Williams said when informed of Murphy’s comments. “I didn’t execute the way I was supposed to. They got the job done and I didn’t.”

    It was a clear, mature step forward taken by Williams, whose first crack at the postseason in 2021 came to a screeching halt when he hit a wall on the same night the Brewers clinched the NL Central Division.

    Williams was named the NL’s reliever of the year in 2023, his first as Milwaukee’s full-time closer, but missed the first four months of this season as he recovered from multiple stress fractures in his back that were diagnosed during spring training. .

    He returned in late July and was as good as ever the rest of the time, saving 14 of 15 games while posting a 1.25 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP while limiting opposing batters to a joint average of .133.

    Williams then dominated the Mets in Game 2 on Wednesday, shutting out the team to help pull the Brewers even in the series, and was perfectly set up for success when Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick homered on consecutive pitches in the seventh and Freddy Peralta unexpectedly. threw a 1-2-3 eighth.

    “It was a great script for us,” Murphy said. “Devin has been as good as a closer in baseball. He was injured most of this year. He was incredible. I would give him the ballgame tomorrow in the same situation.”

    No doubt the rest of the sold-out crowd of 41,594 felt the same way when Williams took the mound to face the top of the New York order: talented, but not done much at that point in the game.

    Lead man Francisco Lindor, who had both of the Mets’ hits up to that point, walked on eight pitches.

    Mark Vientos, next, struck out on four pitches.

    Brandon Nimmo then singled to right, allowing Lindor to shoot to third and bringing on the cleanup man, Alonso.

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    With one hit in 11 at bats in the series so far, Alonso Williams led 3-1.

    That left Williams to go to his favorite pitch, his “Airbender” changeup. Only he left it across the plate enough for Alonso to get the barrel on and send it 300 feet to right for a game-turning homer that took all the air out of the ballpark.

    “I mean, it could have been better. But it wasn’t the worst pitch I’ve ever thrown,” said Williams, who had yet to surrender a home run in a changeup this season. ‘I wanted to get away with it, I have it there.

    “Good example of hitting.”

    Williams recovered by getting Jose Iglesias to ground out, but then hit Jesse Winker, who followed by stealing second base. That proved huge, as Starling Marte singled to right to score Winker and give the Mets a two-run cushion.

    With a pitch count of 34, Williams was done and Murphy came out to replace him with Joe Ross.

    It was simply a stunning turn of events.

    Milwaukee’s offense couldn’t respond in the bottom of the ninth, and as a result, it’s now New York on the road to Philadelphia.

    “It’s baseball,” Murphy said. “You have three top players in Lindor, Nimmo and Alonso, and they did what they do: a walk, a single and an opposite-field home run.

    “That inning was about the Mets. They were great. Those three players are all-stars. They have long-term contracts for a reason. They’re great players, and they’ve had a great ride here. to play the extra games.

    “All the credit goes to the Mets.”

    Williams also tipped his cap.

    “I think I could have controlled it better and put myself in some better positions,” Williams said. “They made some good swings, too. You have to give credit where it’s due.’

    Williams’ predecessor, Josh Hader, allowed a game-turning homer to Freddie Freeman in Game 4 of the 2021 NLDS — a mistake that ultimately ended the Brewers’ season.

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    But Milwaukee was already down in the series, 2-1, which was a far cry from advancing like it did on Thursday.

    “It’s a big disappointment,” Williams said. “We’ve been working all year to get to this point. They gave me a two-point lead there in the ninth. That’s how we set it up, and I couldn’t get through for the guys.

    “Nobody feels worse than me.”

    The Brewers have a $10.5 million option on Williams through 2025. He has proven he is one of the very best in the game. But Milwaukee has also shown it will make forward-thinking decisions when it comes to high-priced players approaching free agency — with Hader in 2022 and Corbin Burnes eight months ago.

    Will Williams be back in a Brewers uniform next season? Only time will tell.

    “This is the closest team I’ve played with. That makes it much more disappointing,” Williams said of the season’s abrupt end. ‘Everyone did their job, except me.

    “I feel like I’ve let everyone down.”

    Trevor Megill, who stepped into the closer role when Williams trailed and finished with 21 saves in 24 chances, stepped into his teammate’s defence.

    “That’s our man,” he said. “That’s baseball, and things happen. But that’s our guy.”

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