LOS ANGELES — The Brewers bullpen might be the biggest separating factor through two games of the National League Championship Series, with Milwaukee relievers combining for 9 2/3 scoreless innings thus far in the series.
Dodgers relievers were a strength of the team, and given the current health of the staff this might be the deepest postseason bullpen the team has had in recent years. During the postseason, the LA bullpen has a 3.13 ERA with 27 strikeouts and eight unintentional walks in 23 innings.
In the NLCS, Dodgers relievers have allowed four runs in 8 1/3 innings but also have 15 strikeouts.
Dodgers batters have just two hits in 30 at-bats plus three walks against Brewers relievers in the series, unable to do anything late in the game. In Game 1, Los Angeles scored its only run in the second inning, and in Game 2 they didn’t score after the fifth.
Aaron Ashby has pitched multiple innings in each game so far, totaling 3 2/3 innings. Abner Uribe was the other Brewer to pitch both games in Milwaukee, including four outs in Game 2, and he has four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings.
Asked what his plan was for the back end of the bullpen, including closer Trevor Megill, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said on Tuesday’s off day at Dodger Stadium, “Keep throwing them out there. They can rest next year.”
After a beat, Murphy added, “Familiarity to a team is a thing. You have to be conscious of that too. We’re not going to go forward without other people stepping up. Some other people have to step up.”
So far the Brewers have used six pitchers in relief, including starting pitcher Dustin May for an inning in Game 2. The active pitchers Milwaukee hasn’t used yet — aside from Game 3 starter Robert Gasser — are right-handers Antonio Senzatela and Chad Patrick, plus left-handers Shane Drohan and Kyle Harrison.
Here’s a look at the Brewers relievers who have pitched, along with the Dodgers batters they faced.
“I think the best solution is to catch a good lead and keep those guys in the pen. But with that, you’ve just got to find a way to stack some good at-bats and find a way to get some outfield grass,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “They’re all different, Uribe to Ashby to [DL] Hall to Megill, they’re all different. So I can’t really answer one specific answer. You’ve just got to compete against those guys. They’re very good.”
On the Dodgers side, they’ve used eight of their nine relievers already with only closer Edwin Díaz having not appeared in the series. This gets back to the Dodgers rarely leading at all in this NLCS, and never late, at least so far.
The asterisks above in the table of Dodgers relievers are for intentional walks, when a pitcher “faced” a batter but didn’t really face the batter. William Contreras and Andrew Vaughn were intentionally walked with Tanner Scott on the mound in Game 1, and Brice Turang was intentionally walked with Brock Stewart pitching in Game 2.
With at least two and potentially three days in a row at Dodger Stadium, let’s see how the relievers are used over the next three games, and if any familiarity creeps into any results.
