LOS ANGELES — The shoe is on the other foot this year, with the Dodgers facing a team heavily reliant on its bullpen rather than the other way around.
Left-hander Aaron Ashby is the opener for the Brewers in Thursday, the same role he served in Game 1 on Monday in Milwaukee. He walked Shohei Ohtani to open the game but retired his next three batters, including a strikeout of Freddie Freeman.
Ashby also faced the top of the lineup in Game 2 on Tuesday, entering the seventh inning with one out and a runner on second base. Ohtani got him for an RBI single and stole second base, but Ashby got the next two outs to escape further damage, including another strikeout of Freeman.
It’s out of necessity for a Brewers pitching staff that is without Brandon Woodruff with a lat injury. Jose Quintana missed the final two weeks of the season with a calf injury and figures to pitch in bulk relief at some point in either Game 3 or Game 4. His return from the injured list was three scoreless innings last week in the NLDS.
During the Division Series against the Cubs, the Brewers used their four starting (or starter-adjacent) pitchers — Freddy Peralta, Quinn Priester, Quintana, and Jacob Misiorowski — a total of 20 1/3 innings in five games, with the bullpen covering the other 22 2/3 innings.
“Everybody is going to be critical of everything that doesn’t go perfect. But they were probably critical in the Chicago series, too. But we won,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Thursday. “We’ve been able to piece together all year, kind of a winning formula. Despite the two great pitching performances [by the Dodgers], we’re still in a good spot.
Thursday will be Ashby’s seventh appearance in Milwaukee’s eight postseason games. Chad Patrick has pitched five times in the Brewers’ first seven games. Abner Uribe is the only other Brewer to pitch in both of the first two games of the NLCS in Milwaukee.
“I think it’s information that we’re gathering. We’ve put them in a position where they have to really play with urgency. When you’re speaking to the pitching, they’ve got to continue to use their high-leverage guys as much as they can.” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “For us it’s important to continue to apply pressure and put the onus on them, on Murph to continue to keep running his high-leverage guys out there.”
The last time the Brewers played the Dodgers in the NLCS was 2018, when Wade Miley started three games of that series, though one of them was only for one batter. Three starts is the most by any Brewers pitcher in a single postseason series.