Thursday marked the 25th time Austin Barnes has caught a playoff game for the Dodgers. During that run, Barnes has been a backup, a starter and now a personal catcher to Clayton Kershaw. He’s also been a .158 hitter in his postseason career.
In a lineup of stars and sluggers, it was Barnes who came through Thursday with two of the biggest at-bats in the Dodgers’ 3-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card series. His third-inning single was the Dodgers’ first hit against Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff. His fifth-inning single drove in Chris Taylor with the game’s first run.
Barnes’ 2-for-3 performance was the culmination of a season-long redemption tour for the 30-year-old catcher.
“Throughout his career, he’s had the ability to look over the strike zone and take,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m really happy for Austin.”
Barnes was only in the lineup Thursday because Kershaw was on the mound. Will Smith started and ended the 2020 season as the Dodgers’ starting catcher, and one of the hottest bats in the lineup. Kershaw, however, has preferred throwing to the veteran Barnes.
The pitcher praised his backstop effusively after a banner performance on the mound: eight shutout innings with 13 strikeouts, and only four singles and a walk against his ledger.
“Barnesy was awesome,” Kershaw said. “He does a great job. He prepares really well. I maybe shook him off twice tonight, maybe three times. Usually when I shake him off they end up with a hit. He’s kind of got a track record now of getting some big hits in the postseason. That opened up the gates for us with that knock. You can’t say enough about him.”
Woodruff was Kershaw’s equal for four innings. Barnes broke up the attempted no-hitter by punching a single into right field, an opposite-field grounder that busted the Brewers’ infield shift.
Then in the fifth inning, Barnes delivered the game’s pivotal at-bat.
With one out and runners on first and second base, AJ Pollock grounded into what appeared to be an inning-ending double play. Luis Urias, the Brewers’ third baseman, stepped on third base but threw a one-hopper to first base. Jedd Gyorko couldn’t scoop the ball out of the dirt, and Pollock was safe.
That extended the inning for Barnes, the Dodgers’ number 9 hitter. He fell behind 0-and-2, then watched a slider tail away for a ball. Woodruff’s next pitch was even closer to the plate, a fastball just off the outside corner. Woodruff wanted the call. Quinn Wolcott, the home plate umpire, didn’t give it to him.
Then on 2-and-2, Barnes waited out a hanging curveball and grounded it up the middle of the diamond. Taylor was running from second base on contact with two outs, and scored easily. Suddenly the Dodgers led 1-0.
“At the bottom of the lineup, with how big our lineup is up front, you’re just trying to get on base,” Barnes said.
That turned the lineup over for Mookie Betts, whose two-run double drove in a pair of runs. Brewers manager Craig Counsell went to the mound to get Woodruff. Walking back to the dugout, the pitcher shouted toward Wolcott, ostensibly still bothered by the borderline call that played in Barnes’ favor.
Wolcott ejected Woodruff from the game. It was a moot point for the Brewers, but it affirmed the significance of Barnes’ discipline as a hitter.
“One pitch changed that whole inning,” Betts said. “If he gets a strike called there, you never know what happens after that. He didn’t, and it kind of all unfolded from there. One play, one pitch can change a lot of things.”
Now more than ever, Barnes doesn’t appear to be a liability at the plate every fifth day, or however frequently Kershaw starts for the remainder of October. A career .229 hitter in the regular season, Barnes rebounded to hit .244 and reach base at a .353 clip in 2020.
Trading power for contact – Barnes hit only one home run this season – seems to have paid dividends.
“I think not trying to drive the ball so much, trying to take what they give you, getting on base for the top of the lineup is big,” Barnes said. “The lineup’s deep. If I’m at the bottom of the lineup and I can get on base for those guys, that’s a huge advantage.”
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