MILWAUKEE — They opened Game 5 of their Division Series with their closer and they opened Game 1 of the National League Championship Series with an opener. The Milwaukee Brewers’ idea of pitching roles is fluid to say the least.
The only given is likely to be Freddy Peralta. The staff ace will start Game 2 against the Dodgers – and probably Game 7 if the series goes the distance.
“We’re going to have to piece it together. That’s how we do it,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s patchwork. It’s proven to be pretty good. Yelly (Christian Yelich) calls it the collection of misfit toys.”
Actually, they fit pretty well. The Brewers had the lowest ERA in the National League during the regular season (3.58).
The choice of left-hander Aaron Ashby to open for Quinn Priester in Game 1 against the Dodgers was an obvious one. Murphy has said the gameplan against Shohei Ohtani is to feed him as many left-handed pitchers as possible.
“It makes the other team make a choice – Do you want to bat those guys there, and you’re going to get a leverage matchup early on,” Murphy said.
“I do think there’s also a little softer landing for a rookie pitcher (Priester is actually in his second year). I’m not sure those factors are that big, but it’s basically now the true starter may not have to face those opposite-hand sluggers more than twice, because we all know the numbers about three times around.”
There is no choice for the Dodgers – Ohtani is batting leadoff, regardless of the opposing pitcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has moved Freddie Freeman down to fourth in the lineup against left-handed starters, making an opposing left-hander face two right-handed hitters (Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez) if he’s going to stay in for both Ohtani and Freeman.
Freeman batted fourth in Game 1.
“The strength of this team currently is their ’pen,” Roberts said of the Brewers. “So how do they take down as many outs from their ’pen as possible is probably their M.O. It’s not unpredictable. We’re expecting it.
“I do feel that we have a lot of guys on our team that are pretty neutral (against right- and left-handed pitching). So it’s going to be hard to set up lanes for them to get sort of matchups consistently. I feel we’re equipped to take on anything they throw at us.”
ROSTER SET
The Dodgers added right-hander Ben Casparius to their pitching staff for the NLCS.
They went with 11 pitchers (plus Shohei Ohtani) on their NLDS roster against the Philadelphia Phillies. For the longer best-of-seven NLCS they are going with 12 pitchers (plus Ohtani). Dropped from the roster to make room for Casparius was catcher Dalton Rushing.
The Dodgers carried three catchers for the NLDS because Will Smith was returning from a hand injury and wasn’t ready to catch nine innings until Game 3 of the series. Smith is expected to catch full-time in the NLCS.
“We felt that Will is in a good spot (and) … we don’t need to protect him to have a third catcher,” Roberts said.
Casparius was 7-5 with a 4.64 ERA and two saves in a swingman role for the Dodgers this season (43 relief appearances, three starts). He finished the season in Triple-A, where he had a 3.38 ERA in five appearances.“Ben obviously was big for us this year. (But he) had gotten off track a little bit,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “So we sent him down and challenged him with what to work on. And he did.
“You can go one of two ways when those moments happen. And he chose the path of attacking exactly what we’d kind of laid out for him and put himself in a really good spot.”
UNDERDOG ROLE
Murphy continued to push the idea that the small-market Brewers are the scrappy underdogs in this NLCS matchup – despite winning more games than the Dodgers or anyone else in MLB during the regular season.
“I’m sure that most Dodger players can’t name eight guys on our roster,” Murphy said Monday. “No offense to them, they shouldn’t have to know the names. But these are some guys that hopefully they know their names by the time it’s over. You never know.”
Roberts continued to roll his eyes at Murphy’s gamesmanship.
“That’s just kind of how Murph is,” Roberts said before Game 1. “He tries to get into the psyche, and he’s telling his team the opposite, right, in the clubhouse, behind closed doors. So we know the act.
“We’re prepared. We’re playing good baseball and we expect the same out of those guys. And all the talk isn’t going to really factor in once the game starts.”
Friedman made a brief attempt at stealing underdog status, pointing out the Brewers won all six meetings during the regular season.
“Yeah, we’re just looking to win a game against them,” Friedman said. “Going 0-6 in the regular season … we earned it, we deserved it.”
UP NEXT
NLCS Game 2: Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1-1, 2.53 ERA) at Brewers (RHP Freddy Peralta, 1-1, 4.66 ERA), Tuesday, 5:08 p.m., TBS/Tru TV/HBO Max, 570 AM