Extra innings complicate how Brewers juggle relievers
Even with a stellar bullpen, at some point ‘you’re going to run out of moves to make,’ Counsell says.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell sat before reporters on a quiet Tuesday afternoon in Dodger Stadium, calmly outlining the fears he must ignore as he deploys his pitchers in relief.
Namely, he cannot allow the possibility of extra innings to impair his decisions.
“If there’s an extra-inning game or a crazy game … you’re gonna be out of players,” Counsell said, “and you’re going to run out of moves to make.”
A few hours later, when the Brewers and the Dodgers faced off in Game 4 of the NLCS, Counsell’s worries were realized. The Tuesday night battle stretched into extra innings before the Dodgers won 2-1 in the 13th. The two teams will face off in Game 5 at 2 on Wednesday with depleted bullpens.
Unlike the Dodgers, whose starter Rich Hill threw five innings, Brewers starter Gio Gonzalez lasted only one.
A 25-pitch first inning dampened Gonzalez’s chances of throwing deep into the game, but that became impossible after the first pitch of the second inning, when Gonzalez rolled his ankle trying to scoop Yasiel Puig’s ground ball.
He limped across the mound and threw a few practice pitches as he tried to walk it off. But after one pitch to Austin Barnes, his night was done.
The Brewers’ bullpen took over with at least eight innings to fill.
But the bullpen appeared up to the task. Game 2 starter Wade Miley lasted 52⁄3 innings, starter Jhoulys Chacin 51⁄3 innings in Game 3. Only Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress pitched in both of those games, and no reliever had thrown more than one inning since Game 1.
“A day off does wonders for a bullpen guy,” Counsell said before Tuesday’s game.
Freddy Peralta had not pitched the entire postseason, but stepped onto the mound in front of a soldout Dodger Stadium.
Hill did not allow a hit until Jesus Aguilar’s single in the fourth inning, but Peralta kept the Brewers’ scoreless offense within reach. The Dodgers had eight runners in scoring position in the first three innings but scored only once.
The Brewers offense finally broke free in the fifth inning, when Orlando Arcia slid across home plate on a double by Domingo Santana. After posting a 0.576 OPS in the regular season, Arcia has earned a 1.050 OPS in the postseason.
Because reliever Peralta held the Dodgers hitless, with six strikeouts in three innings, Arcia’s run in the fifth was enough to tie the game.
Despite a pair of hits in the next two innings, the Brewers offense could not complete a scoring chance. But behind the bullpen, the Brewers bided their time, as Corbin Burnes held the Dodgers hitless through the next two innings, with three strikeouts.
“They come in and they pretty much shut the game down,” Miley, who is scheduled to start Game 5, said before the game.
Barnes reached base for the Dodgers in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Joakim Soria managed to retire the next three batters, saved by Christian Yelich’s diving catch into the stands.
Josh Hader’s outing in the
eighth inning marked the sixth time this season he has appeared in relief in back-to-back days; he has not done that since a pair of games against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 29 and 30. Hader threw two-thirds of an inning, striking out both batters he faced in Game 3.
Hader’s first batter, Max Muncy, singled to center field. Hader retired his next two batters, and struck out Manny Machado, before Brian Dozier singled and went on to reach third.
Hader picked up the final out by striking out Matt Kemp, and the Brewers escaped the inning unscathed.
After Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen stifled the Brewers, Knebel did the same to the Dodgers in the ninth.
The Brewers bullpen strategy is almost unbreakable, as long as games abide by tradition. But Tuesday’s drawn-out battle was anything but. The Brewers and Dodgers entered extra innings with four relievers apiece.
Junior Guerra led the extra-inning effort, holding the Dodgers scoreless in the 10th and 11th innings, while Jansen and Alex Wood did the same for the Dodgers. In a contest of bullpen endurance, Guerra’s multiple innings gave the Brewers a chance.
Counsell employs a certain degree of randomness in the order he uses relievers; he said before the game whether Knebel threw in the fifth or ninth inning depended on circumstance. But Counsell’s options are limited after nine innings.
As extra innings stretched on, unpredictability risked revealing the pitfall of the Brewers’ bullpen — at some point, there is no next man up.