Mitchell 'still trying to come down' after game-changing blast

MILWAUKEE -- When the Brewers were swept away by the D-backs in last year’s NL Wild Card Series, Garrett Mitchell was an observer. He remembers what he was feeling then, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant.

“Disappointment. Frustration,” Mitchell said. “Definitely different than what it feels like right now.”

It was difficult for the 26-year-old former first-round Draft pick to describe exactly what it felt like in the aftermath of the Brewers’ 5-3 win over the Mets in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series, after his tie-breaking two-run homer decided a must-win game that kept Milwaukee’s season alive for a decisive Game 3 on Thursday night.

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The night, and perhaps the Brewers’ season, turned on home runs from a pair of former top prospects. First Jackson Chourio, whose second home run of the night was a game-tying shot leading off the eighth inning to give the Brewers new life. Then Mitchell, who entered the game as a pinch-runner in the sixth inning and didn’t get to bat until the eighth, when he got his chance thanks to Willy Adames working back from an 0-2 count to hit a single that kept the inning alive with two outs.

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“You dream of moments like that,” Mitchell said. “You want to be in those situations. Those are the kinds of things you look at when you’re in the backyard.”

Against tough but hard-worked Mets right-hander Phil Maton, Mitchell saw a first-pitch curveball and didn’t miss it. His line drive bounced off the top of the wall and over for the Brewers’ second go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later in the franchise’s postseason history. Paul Molitor hit the other, an eighth-inning solo homer in Game 3 of the 1981 AL Division Series against the Yankees.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mitchell was the ninth player whose first career postseason hit was a game-winning home run in the eighth inning of a game or later. He doesn’t remember much about circling the bases.

“I’m still trying to come down from it,” he said. “But most importantly, I’m just excited to play another day of baseball.”

Every day of baseball means something to Mitchell, who was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic when he was 10 years old and had to learn how to manage his body throughout high school in Orange County, Calif., and in college at UCLA before the Brewers made him their first-round Draft pick in 2020.

As a pro, Mitchell has been dogged by injuries, starting with a strained oblique in 2022 and then a left shoulder injury suffered last April that required surgery and cost him the rest of '23. He’d made enough progress that he was under consideration for the Brewers’ NL Wild Card Series roster against the D-backs as a pinch-runner, but the Brewers passed him over. Among the players they kept was Jesse Winker, who now plays for the Mets.

This year, injury struck again. Days before the Brewers’ season opener in New York against the Mets, he fractured his left index finger and wound up on the injured list until July 1. Since then, Mitchell has been splitting center-field duties with Blake Perkins, but Mitchell was rather quietly the Brewers’ leading hitter with an .844 OPS in September.

“Garrett has been through three years of being injured,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He missed how many games this year? He’s willing to do anything. … You’d never know he’s been through that adversity because he just doesn’t show it to you.”

Mitchell was asked what was going through his mind as he prepared for his first at-bat of the night.

“It’s like the moment is telling you to speed up. ‘Try to do more. Swing for the fences,’” Mitchell said. “For me, it was just, like, be yourself, be relaxed, pass it to the next guy. That was my mentality. I’m not trying to hit a homer there.”

He did, and it was one of the Brewers’ biggest postseason homers ever.

“I’m very grateful,” Mitchell said. “I know I put in a lot of work to get back here to be in this situation. Without my family, my friends, my teammates -- that continued push to keep going, it’s what makes you want to show up to the ballpark every day and work your butt off.”