How the Brewers Are Preventing Late-Inning Comebacks

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Milwaukee owned the best staff in baseball during the season when it came to depressing slug. They throttled the Dodgers in the NLCS with four-seamers in the rotation and sinkers in the bullpen.

The Brewers have thrown 432 consecutive sinkers without allowing a home run (since Sept. 25).

Highest Sinker Use in LCS, 2008-26

The Brewers keep the ball in the park late, squelching quick comebacks. They have allowed no home runs and one run after the sixth inning this postseason by leaning on power sinkers:

Brewers Pitching Innings 7-8-9, Postseason

Aaron Ashby is a big part of how Milwaukee stifles offense late. Roberts made a mistake in not chasing a two-run deficit in Game 3, though in fairness to him, the Brewers’ bullpen has been so good that chasing a deficit seemed unwise. But by turning the game over to Roki Sasaki and Jason Wrobleski rather than his high-leverage relievers, Roberts missed a chance to force Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy to use Ashby.

The lefthander had been throwing in the Milwaukee bullpen, but when Milwaukee added tack-on runs, he sat down. That enabled Murphy to use a fresh Ashby to close Game 4 by getting nine outs. Ashby joined Lance McCullers (2017) and Vida Blue (1972) as the only pitchers with a three-inning save to clinch the pennant.

The Dodgers went 0-for-7 against his breaking pitches in the NLCS. 

“They chased Ashby’s curveball,” Murphy said. “That was key.”

While the Brewers’ sinkers limited late slug, the staff’s breaking pitches flummoxed Los Angeles even more. The Dodgers went 3-for-41 against Milwaukee’s spin, including 0-for-17 against lefthanded relievers Ashby, JoJo Romero and DL Hall.

With elite velocity and spin, the Brewers did a great job of keeping Los Angeles off balance back to front. The Dodgers hit only mid-range velocity pitches.

Brewers Pitching by Velocity, NLCS