Nothing is better than playoff baseball. Sunday proved it. The National League staged two dramatic Division Series, nothing more so than San Diego at Milwaukee.

After losing Game 1 to the Brewers on a sky-high fly ball that hit the roof structure and came down in the Brewers’ left fielder’s glove, Game 2 would be just as tight as Game 1, which Milwaukee won 3-2.

It was the same score going into the bottom of the ninth, only with the Padres on top. Both teams had let the gravity of the moment rattle them, committing uncharacteristic errors—the Padres two, the Brewers three—and mental blunders. 

With that thin 3-2 lead, Padres manager Craig Stamen went against what he had done most of the season by bringing his lights-out closer Mason Miller in the game in the eighth inning. The guy throws 104-mile-an-hour fastballs. But throughout the season, he was mainly limited to one inning. Only once was he brought in for two innings. He struck out the first two Brewers in the bottom of the eighth, like normal, and got the third to fly out easily to right. 

But asked to go that extra inning proved to be too much. His control abandoned him. After a groundout, he walked two batters, then got a fly out for the second out of the inning. He then proceeded to walk the Brewers number nine hitter to load the bases. Up came their 22-year-old All-Star Jackson Chourio, who, with two strikes, barely fouled off a 103.5 miles-per-hour fastball. Took a slider low. Then, on the sixth pitch of the at-bat, drilled a single up the middle to score two runs, give the Brewers a dramatic, down-to-their-last-strike 4-3 victory, and a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five. 

It was baseball at its finest.

In the other game, the unbeatable Dodgers, who seemed to do no wrong offensively in Game 1, ran up against a parade of Braves pitchers who held them to one run going into the ninth. 

The Braves haven’t exactly been hitting the ball either, with their top three hitters—Drake Baldwin, Ronald Acuña, and Matt Olson—batting .158, .167, and .158.  

But their pitching kept them in the game. It was a pitching duel heading into the bottom of the ninth. Atlanta up 3-1 in Dodger Stadium, where you just know magic always seems to happen to the hometown team. With two outs, it looked like it was happening again. Max Muncy homered to right to make it 3-2. It was just a matter of time before the Dodgers got a bloop hit then another home run and walked it off in victory like they always do, like they’re supposed to do with that killer lineup. 

With two outs, the Braves brought in their closer, Raisel Iglesia, to face the one guy on the Dodgers roster who isn’t an All-Star, Josue De Paula. Those unknowns are usually the guys who come through when you least expect them.

Strike one. Ball one. Then a foul pop up to the third baseman for the third out. Braves in 3-2, beating the mighty, evil Dodgers, tying the series at one game apiece, and proving the Dodgers can actually be beaten.

Now, if only they can be beaten two more times this series.

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