MILWAUKEE — The Brewers were able to bullpen their way through two of the five games of their NLDS triumph over the Cubs thanks to off-days between Games 1 and 2, 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. Such is the current state of Milwaukee’s pitching, even coming off a first-round bye.
Now the club faces an entirely different challenge against the Dodgers in the NLCS. It’s a best-of-seven series this time, with only two days off. It presents “a huge challenge,” said manager Pat Murphy, and that’s before you even think about the hitters in L.A.’s lineup.
Asked how they would get through it, Brewers starter Quinn Priester simplified things.
“Just by pitching and playing baseball,” he said. “You can go into it with a plan, and then something happens in the first inning and that plan is out the window. We’ll play the way we played all year: pitch to pitch, out to out.”
That’s fine for a player, but the coaches and staff have to build out a plan.
“Because we’re basically going in with three starters,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook said, referring to Priester, Freddy Peralta and Jose Quintana, “we have to be able to cover things if things go south, if we have to make a right turn. Like I’ve said before, this is just the norm for us. I don’t think it’s anything like, ‘Oh, God, how are we going to do this?’ We do this every day and we find a way.”
For now, here’s what we know and don’t know about the starting pitching in this NLCS.
The Brewers will go with a bullpen game on Monday, announcing left-hander Aaron Ashby will get the start against a Dodgers lineup that usually features two lefties (Ohtani and Freddie Freeman) among the first three hitters. Priester is likely to follow at some point of Game 1, Murphy said, playfully pegging those odds at “71 percent.” Milwaukee plans to start Peralta in Game 2 on Tuesday night and is “to be determined” beyond that.
“I expect to be a starter,” Quintana said. “I don’t know a plan yet, but I expect that. Whatever role they think they want to use me, I’m going to be available. But I expect to be back to starting.”
Not in play for this series is veteran starter Brandon Woodruff, who is sidelined by a right lat strain and not yet playing catch, meaning he is not ready for the NLCS. But the World Series, if the Brewers find a way?
Maybe it’s a long shot. But then again …
“I’m not quite ready to answer that question yet,” Woodruff said.
“I’ve been trying to get ready,” he said. “Each day is better and better for me. I don’t know what tomorrow looks like. But these past two, three weeks have been good for me and we’ll see what happens. It’s too early to make a call on anything.”
So, the Brewers will have to do some mixing and matching with their plethora of “length” options. Jacob Misiorowski made two huge relief appearances during the NLDS, including a four-inning outing in Game 5, and an NLCS start hasn’t been ruled out, Murphy said. Right-hander Chad Patrick can go multiple innings, like his electric, five-out outing in the late innings behind Misiorowski in Game 5. Left-hander Robert Gasser was knocked around in his only NLDS appearance, but he was stretched out to the three-inning mark at season’s end after returning from Tommy John surgery.
Then there are the pitchers who didn’t make the NLDS roster but were candidates to come into play in the NLCS. Right-handers Tobias Myers and Erick Fedde and left-hander DL Hall all traveled with the Brewers during the Division Series and stayed on a throwing program that included mound work every 2-3 days. Of those three, Myers wound up making the NLCS roster. Rookie Logan Henderson, recovered from a right elbow injury, did not, although he was on a similar plan in Arizona. Henderson re-joined the Brewers on Sunday and will remain as a backup.
Less a length arm than a matchup choice, left-hander Rob Zastryzny was another option to make not only the roster for the NLCS, but make a start against the Dodgers’ lefty hitters at the top of the lineup. The Brewers ultimately opted against that because he’s typically a one-inning guy.
“All of those guys are doing things.” Hook said. “They’re all ‘built up,’ but it’s really hard to replicate the intent of when you’re on the mound [in a game].”
It sounds like a jumble, but don’t count the Brewers out. They ranked third in the Majors this season with a 3.56 ERA from the starting rotation, as many moving pieces as it included. And it was a similar situation for Murphy & Co. against the Dodgers in the 2018 NLCS, when Jhoulys Chacín and Wade Miley were the only steady starters. And that series went seven games.
“It feels similar,” Peralta said. “I know that for some reason this team feels different. It’s like, way better feelings, how we manage everything in the clubhouse, talking about players, it’s different. And I know that Murph and the coaching staff, they are doing what they think is best for the team.
“I can’t remember how often we used the relievers [in 2018 against the Dodgers] but I remember that Woody, me, we came from the bullpen multiple times. I can remember it was fun. So let’s keep it that way.”
Like the NLDS, the Brewers will carry 12 pitchers and 14 position players in the NLCS, despite the added stress on the pitching staff and given the needs of the position-player group.
“We can’t shed a position player right now,” Murphy said. “Our options and what they are, we don’t feel like we can probably shed one. If we’re only going to keep 12 pitchers, then we have to have a bunch of guys with length, so that opens the door for others that might not have been on the roster the first week. We’ve got to look at that.”