The Braves' Freddie Freeman hammered a two-out, first-pitch homer to center field in the bottom of the eighth off Josh Hader, the Milwaukee Brewers' All-Star closer, lifting Atlanta to a 5-4 come-from-behind win on Tuesday, closing out the NL division series in four games.
"I've had a lot of cool moments in my career, but so far I think that's going to top them right there," Freeman said. "But hopefully that's not the last cool one."
Freeman's heroics ended a back-and-forth affair in which the Braves and Brewers combined for nine runs -- the total number of runs they scored together during the first three games of a well-pitched series.
Though Freeman is the face of the Braves franchise, the reigning NL MVP and possibly a future Hall of Famer, his homer off Hader was a stunner.
"Against him, in my whole career, I just look location, because he throws all those heaters up," Freeman said. "Was I looking for a [first-pitch] slider up? No. I was just kind of looking up. ... I kind of looked up and away in location, and he threw it there and I was able to get it."
"You can't make that up," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "I had so many things going on in my mind when that happened, when he hit that ball.
"It was like the perfect ending. Unbelievable. And God, I don't know if I've ever been involved in a game like that, just the intensity and everything that went on, and back and forth. My God. It was something else."
Freeman became the first player in Braves history to hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later of a series-ending win, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
With the clincher, Atlanta has now earned back-to-back berths in the NLCS for the first time since a five-year streak ending in 1999.
Now they face their nemesis from last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers in a rematch of Division Champions.
