After five days of waiting, the start of the NLDS is finally here. The Brewers finished the regular season with the best record in baseball and will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. However,
that’s all the regular-season record means starting today. It’s a brand new season, and the Brewers have to back up that best record with a postseason run. It begins this afternoon against the Cubs.
Freddy Peralta led the Brewers’ rotation in the regular season, and he will open the postseason for the Brewers as well. Other than a hiccup against the Rangers, Peralta has been phenomenal over the last two months. He has a 2.80 ERA and 3.65 FIP over the full season, and that dropped to a 1.76 ERA and 3.16 FIP in just August and September.
In each of the four series against the Cubs this season, Peralta made a start. He held them scoreless over six innings in two of those starts (May 4 and August 18). In the other two starts, he allowed three runs in five innings on June 19 and five runs in four innings on July 30.
Peralta is also looking for some postseason redemption with this start. Last year against the Mets, he got the game one start and allowed three runs in four innings. The year before that, he allowed four runs in five innings in game two against the Diamondbacks. Back in 2021, he had a better start in game three against the Braves, pitching four scoreless innings. In his postseason career, he has a 4.00 ERA and 3.36 FIP.
For the Cubs, they will start Matthew Boyd on three days of rest. He pitched the first game of the Wild Card series, allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings. He allowed four hits, struck out two batters, and walked one in that start. In that game, the Cubs followed Boyd up with four relievers: Daniel Palencia (1 2/3 innings), Drew Pomeranz (one inning), Andrew Kittredge (one inning), and Brad Keller (one inning).
Boyd has led the Cubs’ rotation this season, but he has struggled after the All-Star Break. He has a 3.21 ERA and 3.65 FIP in the regular season, but that includes a 4.63 ERA and 4.34 FIP after the break. The Brewers faced him twice in the regular season. They scored five runs off of him in five innings in a win at home on July 28. The next time they faced him was in the first game of a doubleheader on August 19. They scored four runs in 5 1/3 innings, but lost that game.
The game one lineup doesn’t feature much for surprises. Jackson Chourio will lead off instead of Brice Turang or Sal Frelick. He’s been in the leadoff spot in some games this season — 26 games total — but he’s only led off three times in September. Turang will bat second, and William Contreras and Christian Yelich take their more traditional three and four spots in the lineup. Andrew Vaughn will provide protection in the fifth spot. Frelick and Caleb Durbin follow in the sixth and seventh spots. Blake Perkins gets the nod over Isaac Collins today and will bat eighth, and Joey Ortiz rounds out the lineup batting ninth.
During the pregame interviews, Frelick gave an update on the knee injury he’s been dealing with this season. When asked how his knee is feeling, here was his response.
Yeah, felt fine. Something I dealt with the whole year a little bit. But it’s minor. It was a minor thing. Kind of acts up here and there, but I think that week of rest helped out, so we were able to get that bye, and it feels good.
As for the Cubs, they’ll use the same lineup that they used in game one of the Wild Card series. The only change for them is that Ian Happ moves back to the fifth spot in the lineup, with Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki moving up to third and fourth, respectively.
For a more extensive preview of the NLDS, here are a few other articles to read from our writers.
- The Brewers announced their full NLDS roster earlier this morning.
- Harrison has a full preview of the NLDS against the Cubs.
- Paul also has a preview for each of the Division Series.
- If you’re looking to talk about the other Division Series, we have an open thread available for those games.
Even though October is here and fall is in full swing, we’re still seeing some summer-like temperatures in Milwaukee. The forecast for today is sunny with a high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit, and the roof will be open. Temperatures will drop to normal October temperatures after today. Monday’s forecast has a game time temperature in the low 60s with a high chance of rain.
First pitch is set for 1:08 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on TBS and can also be watched on HBO Max. A radio broadcast is available on both ESPN Radio and the Brewers Radio Network.
