Brewers must deal with Dodger aces early in series
The Milwaukee Brewers realize they’ll face a stiff challenge right out of the chute facing the Los Angeles Dodgers’ formidable starting rotation in the National League Championship Series, beginning with veteran Clayton Kershaw and, most likely, impressive rookie Walker Buehler.
Game 1 is scheduled for 7:09 p.m. Friday and Game 2 for 3:09 p.m. Saturday at Miller Park.
“I think the thing that stands out (about Kershaw), first and foremost, is the way he competes,” Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun said Wednesday after a full-squad workout at Miller Park. “To me, he’s the greatest pitcher of our generation, and on the short list of greatest pitchers of all time.
“It starts with the way he competes, night in and night out. Whether he has his best stuff or not, from the first pitch to the last, you know you’re in for a battle when you face him. Obviously, the pure stuff is really good. People make a big deal about his fastball velocity being down but he’s probably a better pitcher than he was when he was younger.
“For me, he’s as good and as tough as he has ever been, and it starts with his level of competitiveness, which is unique and special.”
The Brewers faced Kershaw, 30, twice during the regular season with markedly different results. On July 21 at Miller Park, they scored four runs off him in six innings, though only one was earned, in taking a 4-2 victory.
Less than two weeks later, Kershaw’s solid six innings (five hits, two runs, seven strikeouts) were barely remembered because the Dodgers broke out the big sticks, knocking seven balls out of the park in a 21-5 beating.
“All of their starters have thrown the ball really well,” Braun said.
“For us as an offense, we know we’re not going to get a ton of opportunities against those guys so we’ve talked about the importance of trying to cash in the opportunities we do get.”
Despite posting the best record in the NL (96-67) and taking the NL Central crown away from the powerful Chicago Cubs in a game No. 163, not to mention having home-field advantage, the Brewers are still considered the underdog in the NLCS. That’s fine, according to Braun.
“I like the position we’re in,” he said. “Entering spring training, nobody thought we had a chance to win the division, and we did that. Nobody thought we’d have a chance to do much damage in the postseason, and we just swept the first round.”
Wait and see: To no one’s surprise, manager Craig Counsell wasn’t ready on Wednesday to make any declarations about how he’ll handle the pitching for the NLCS.
Counsell and his coaching staff pulled the strings to perfection in the Brewers’ three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the NLDS. Starting with an all-hands-on-deck approach, Milwaukee shut down a dangerous Colorado lineup.
Brandon Woodruff started and pitched three innings in Game 1, Jhoulys Chacín started and pitched five in Game 2 and Wade Miley pitched 4 2⁄3 innings in Game 3.
The Brewers’ tremendous bullpen took over from there and by the time all was said and done, the Rockies had managed just two runs on 14 hits in 28 total innings – an incredible showing by Milwaukee’s entire staff.
“I don’t have names for you,” Counsell said when asked about plans for the Dodgers series, which is best-of-seven as opposed to the best-of-five format utilized in the NLDS.
“We have to think about this series differently, and covering the number of innings we have to cover it’s definitely something we have to think about differently.
“We’ve done things differently for a whole bunch of the season.”
Teams have to set their rosters by 10 a.m. Friday, with first pitch set for 7:09 p.m.
Rooting interest: Brewers second baseman Travis Shaw counts several members of the Boston Red Sox among his best friends in the game, so it came as no surprise that he was pleased to see his former team advance to the American League Championship Series by beating the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.
“I’ve had three texts today from them – Brock Holt, (Dustin) Pedroia and Mookie (Betts),” said Shaw, who was a ninth-round draft pick of the Red Sox in 2011. He broke into the major leagues with them in 2015.
“I congratulated them. I still keep in contact with 5-6 guys over there. I pull for them. I hope they have success. I have a lot of really good friends over there and I grew up with a lot of those guys.
“So yeah, I root for those guys.” Boston will face the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in the ALCS.
Should the Brewers and Red Sox advance, Shaw will find himself matched up against those same friends for all the marbles.
“They’ve mentioned the possibility exists and is getting closer,” said Shaw. “It’d be pretty cool if it happened. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we can even think of that.“