LOS ANGELES – Two times through their shortened postseason rotation and the Milwaukee Brewers' most impressive starter has been... Robert Gasser?
After another five shutout innings in his start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night, Oct. 14, Gasser handed the ball off to Abner Uribe for the sixth having dropped his ERA to 1.08 and his WHIP to 0.96.
By comparison, Jacob Misiorowski stands at 3.24 and 1.56 and Logan Henderson at 3.00 and 1.11. Gasser and Misiorowski have each thrown 8 ⅓ innings and Henderson nine through a total of seven games in the National League Division Series and NLCS.
"I think he's proven it," manager Pat Murphy said before the game when asked why the left-hander had solidified himself as the Brewers' No. 3. Milwaukee would eventually use a big seventh-inning rally to spark a 6-2 victory to go up 3-0 in the series.
GAME 3 BOX SCORE:Brewers 6, Dodgers 2
"The outings that he's put together have been pretty special," Murphy continued. "We just hope that continues. Pitch by pitch – and he knows he has a team behind him. He doesn't have to go out and just try to dominate. Just go out and make pitches.
"He's got a good defense behind him. Go from there."
Gasser was afforded a lead one pitch into the game on Jackson Chourio's homer off Blake Snell and used a mixture of mostly sinkers and sweepers to limit the Dodgers to three singles and a walk while also hitting a batter.
He faced one over the minimum through the first two innings, then worked around a two-on, one-out situation in the third with a flyout and a groundout.
With Snell clearly on his game after the Chourio homer Gasser more than continued to hold his own, mitigating a two-out plunking of Shohei Ohtani – having been dropped to sixth in the lineup – with a strikeout of Will Smith and then stranding a leadoff walk in the fifth by retiring the next three batters including Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Gasser struck out three while generating 10 outs through the air, which can be done with success at this cavernous ballpark, on 72 pitches.
Abner Uribe falters in key spot
Pitching in his seventh game of the playoffs – yes, that's every one to date – Uribe's fortunes took a turn for the worse.
The right-hander walked leadoff man Teoscar Hernández on five pitches then followed up with a four-pitch walk to Kyle Tucker.
Uribe recovered briefly by getting pinch-hitter Max Muncy to strike out, but five more pitches to Ohtani resulted in a third free pass and a bleak bases-loaded situation for the Brewers.
A sinker right out over the heart of the plate on Uribe's first pitch to Smith was then smoked to the gap in left-center for a two-run double that put Los Angeles in the lead for the first time.
It also led to Uribe's unceremonious exit, with DL Hall entering and striking out the next two hitters to keep Milwaukee well within striking range with three innings remaining to try and make headway against Snell.
What an answer by the offense
Fourteen consecutive Brewers batters had been set down by Snell following Cooper Pratt's second-inning single heading into the seventh.
Snell had also struck out nine and in general was just as dominant as he had been in his eight-inning, 10-strikeout domination in Game 2 of the NLCS last year at American Family Field.
But Andrew Vaughn's third plate appearance of the game changed the tenor of everything.
Starting at designated hitter in place of Christian Yelich, Vaughn began the seventh by drawing a seven-pitch walk from Snell.
That brought Jake Bauers to the plate – he of the epic 12-pitch at-bat in Game 2 that helped chase Yoshinobu Yamamoto and flip the Brewers' fortunes in a 7-4 victory – and the first baseman responded with another signature postseason moment.
This time, he battled Snell for 11 pitches, fouling off five of six as the battle reached its zenith before absolutely unloading on a 97.8-mph fastball and driving it 412 feet out to right field to wrest the lead back for the Brewers and take the starch out of the crowd.
Perhaps shellshocked, Snell threw one pitch to the next batter, Garrett Mitchell, before making another mistake and this time the Brewers centerfielder made him pay by smoking a 428-foot homer to right-center that increased Milwaukee's advantage to 4-2.
It also ended Snell's outing at 101 pitches.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' most steady postseason starter to this point has been Robert Gasser