ATLANTA – The scoreless innings kept piling up, along with the strikeouts. The shadows began to creep across the infield, and when the lights came on in a mostly empty stadium for a postseason game that began a little past noon, it seemed like this might go on forever.
Finally, Freddie Freeman had seen enough.
The MVP candidate who warded off a frightening bout with the coronavirus at the beginning of this most unusual Major League Baseball season fittingly delivered the winning hit in the 13th inning, ending the longest scoreless duel in MLB postseason history as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 in the opener of their National League wild-card series Wednesday.
“That was a very stressful 4 1/2 hours,” Freeman said with a chuckle.
The Braves, three-time reigning champions in the NL East Division, won a postseason opener for the first time since Game 1 of their 2001 NL Division Series against the Houston Astros. Atlanta will try to wrap up the best-of-three series Thursday and snap an MLB-record-tying streak of 10 straight playoff round losses.