Well, here we are. The Milwaukee Brewers are mired in one of the worst offensive slumps in the 57-year history of their franchise. This would be a problem if it occurred in June, but when it happens in October,
it’s a disaster. Milwaukee has managed one run in each of the three games of this series, and, predictably, the Los Angeles Dodgers now lead 3-0.
It is well known that only one team in the history of baseball has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series (with the other 40 teams failing, 30 of whom were swept), that team being the 2004 Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Of course, that lineup had two in-their-prime Hall-of-Fame-level hitters (David Ortiz, Manny Ramírez) in its lineup and two more in its rotation (Curt Schilling, Pedro Martínez, both arguably just past their primes but still very good).
These Brewers do not have that level of player; their success this season came with a balanced and relentless attack. All they’ve gotten since game two of the Division Series, with a couple of exceptions, is balanced and relentless incompetence at the plate. If they’re going to make this a respectable series, they’ll need to find some offense, and to do so tonight they’ll make that attempt against Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani has frankly had a bad offensive series, his bloop triple in the first inning yesterday notwithstanding. This will be Ohtani’s second career postseason start: he won on October 4 against the Phillies. In that start, Ohtani allowed three runs in the second inning, but other than that he was fantastic, with nine strikeouts, one walk, and just three hits allowed in six total innings; the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the seventh and Ohtani was awarded the victory.
The Brewers will counter with considerably less “stuff,” but a good deal of veteran savvy. Jose Quintana will make his first start and second appearance of the 2025 postseason after going three scoreless innings in relief on October 8. At this point in Quintana’s career it will always be a bit of an adventure, especially against a lineup with the firepower of the Dodgers’. But one thing seems certain: this moment doesn’t seem likely to rattle Quintana, and if he goes down tonight, it won’t be because he’s afraid. Tonight will be Quintana’s 10th postseason appearance and eighth start; overall he’s 0-2 but has a solid 3.26 ERA and 3.46 FIP.
Recent postseason history is against Quintana, though: he started against this Dodger team once in last season’s NLCS when he was on the Mets, and got beat up to the tune of five runs allowed in 3 1/3 innings. He will obviously be looking for better results this time. The Brewers will certainly have a plan for a lot of relief in this game, given that Quintana isn’t the type of pitcher that you should let a team like the Dodgers get an extended look at. But this is complicated due to recent workloads: Jacob Misiorowski will be unavailable, Aaron Ashby has pitched in almost every game of the postseason, and Abner Uribe and Jared Koenig both got four outs yesterday. Of course, there is no tomorrow for the 2025 Brewers if they don’t win this game, so I’m sure any reliever will be available, but I’d expect Chad Patrick to be in line for at least a couple of innings if things are going well. Grant Anderson, Tobias Myers, and Robert Gasser could also eat some innings, but in what is literally a must-win game, Milwaukee might try to avoid those guys unless things have gone truly off the rails. It must be said, though: the Brewers have pitched quite well in this series. The pitching staff can hardly be blamed for the deep hole that Milwaukee is in.
The big question for Milwaukee’s lineup on Friday was whether Jackson Chourio would be back atop the lineup after having to leave yesterday’s game with what he called cramping in his hamstring. Chourio himself expected to be in there, and he is indeed back in the lineup and left field. But the Brewers have shuffled things a bit in their desperate search for offense: Brice Turang will lead off against the right-handed Ohtani, Chourio bats second, and the deeply struggling Christian Yelich is in the three-hole. Jake Bauers has also moved up in the lineup to fifth, and he’ll play first base, with Andrew Vaughn starting the game on the bench. Blake Perkins is back in the starting lineup in center field, which moves Sal Frelick back to right.
First pitch is on TBS and HBO Max at 7:38 p.m., and you can also find the game on the Brewers Radio Network. We’ll catch you all on the other side, when we’ll hopefully have at least one more game to look forward to.
