{"id":828160,"date":"2026-10-13T06:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/828160\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T06:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:30:20","slug":"in-nlcs-dodgers-see-what-money-cant-buy-a-bullpen-such-as-milwaukees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/828160\/","title":{"rendered":"In NLCS, Dodgers see what money can\u2019t buy: a bullpen such as Milwaukee\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers<\/a> spent $163 million on the back end of their bullpen the past two years. The Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> did not.<\/p>\n

So two games into the National League Championship Series, guess which team\u2019s relief corps has been lights out and which one has been lit up? (Spoiler alert: it\u2019s not the team with all the money.)<\/p>\n

Milwaukee sent a parade of four relievers to the mound for a second straight game Monday, and for a second straight game they didn\u2019t give up a run, retiring the last 15 Dodgers in order in a 7-4 win<\/a> that gives Milwaukee a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Brewers\u2019 bullpen has pitched 9 2\/3 innings in the series, yielding just two hits \u2014 both off Abner Uribe \u2014 and three walks. That\u2019s it. Both wins have gone to relievers, DL Hall in the opener and JoJo Romero in Game 2.<\/p>\n

Dodger relievers, meanwhile, have pitched 9 1\/3 innings in the two games, giving up four runs on nine hits. Reliever Brock Stewart took the loss Monday.<\/p>\n

In a series that\u2019s rapidly shaping up as a battle of the bullpens, the Dodgers clearly aren\u2019t getting what they paid for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have an answer,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> shrugged when asked why the Dodgers relievers have struggled while the Brewers have shined. \u201cI know that they\u2019ve got good arms; so do we. I think they\u2019re just finding ways to win pitches better than we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slugger Max Muncy has a theory on the same question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Brewers\u2019 48 bullpen wins was the most in baseball during the regular season and its 3.40 ERA was best in the National League. And it has been even better in the postseason, giving up just one earned run in 28 2\/3 innings against the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. In the divisional era (since 1969), only the 1991 Minnesota Twins have a lower bullpen ERA through six playoff games and with a reliever earning the victory in all five of Milwaukee\u2019s postseason wins, the Brewers have done something only the 2014 Kansas City Royals had done previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason they\u2019re where they\u2019re at right now and the bullpen\u2019s a big piece of that,\u201d Muncy said. \u201cIf there is a positive, you can say that a lot of our guys are starting to get looks at their back-end guys. But when they\u2019re as good as they are, I don\u2019t know how much that helps.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all throwing 100 [mph] plus and they all have really nasty stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially Aaron Ashby, who has pitched in both games, holding the Dodgers to a walk in 3 2\/3 innings, striking out three. He\u2019s the Brewers\u2019 best-paid reliever, earning $5.5 million this season.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers have three relievers making at least twice that \u2014 and one of them, Blake Treinen, didn\u2019t even make the postseason roster. One of the others, Tanner Scott, gave up twice as many runs in his first postseason appearance as the Brewers\u2019 bullpen has given up this month.<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee <\/p>\n

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Abner Uribe celebrates after completing the seventh inning of Game 2 of the NLCS.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey attack the hitters,\u201d Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> said of Milwaukee\u2019s relievers. \u201cThey throw strikes. They got good stuff. They throw hard. We\u2019ve just got to do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez then echoed Muncy in pointing out the Dodgers have now seen six of Milwaukee\u2019s nine relievers, with Ashby and Uribe throwing in both games. And while the Dodgers haven\u2019t done anything against them yet, that familiarity could help going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we\u2019re going to get,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n

Brewers manager Pat Murphy conceded the point \u2014 sort of.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamiliarity, as the numbers tell us, does provide an edge,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what we try to do is make sure they don\u2019t face the same guys the next time they pitch if they\u2019re one-inning guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t always do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes you can, though. Uribe, who has appeared in all six Brewers games this postseason, has already faced eight Dodger hitters in the series, but only one of them, Andy Pages, twice. And when he does face someone a second time, Murphy said with a smile, who\u2019s to say he\u2019ll him pitch the same way?<\/p>\n

\u201cUribe might have something up his sleeve based on how those other times went,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, well, I never gave him this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That would count as a surprise. However the dominant performance of the Brewers\u2019 bargain-basement bullpen would not. Because even in baseball, the Dodgers are finding out, there are some things money can\u2019t buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers spent $163 million on the back end of their bullpen the past two years. The Milwaukee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[2131,1110,5,100533,5211,1603,39,14,9448,3654,843,6332,1595,10249,3215,2022],"class_list":["post-828160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-aaron-ashby","tag-abner-uribe","tag-baseball","tag-best-of-seven-series","tag-brewer","tag-bullpen","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-guy","tag-innings","tag-milwaukee","tag-money","tag-postseason","tag-reliever","tag-run","tag-win"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117432197148795797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}