Haudricourt: Dodgers hit Brewers where it really hurts, scoring late against vaunted bullpen

It’s not so much that the Milwaukee Brewers lost a game. They had won 12 in a row, an incredible streak at this time of year, and it was bound to end at some point.

It’s how the Brewers lost Game 2 of the National League Championship Series that caused gnashing of teeth, blowing a lead out of their vaunted bullpen. And this after the bullpen nearly blew Game 1.

Yes, the area of biggest strength for the Brewers is suddenly leaking oil, after getting them this far, after “bullpen-ing” had become a common modus operandi. And stop with the "they must be tired” stuff. Yes, the relief corps has been heavily used, but the team had four days off after sweeping Colorado in the NL Division Series.

So, the Dodgers’ 4-3 comeback victory Saturday at Miller Park did more than merely even the series, 1-1. It put another dent in the armor of the Brewers’ bullpen, which had shut down opponents with machine-like regularity throughout the year.

How dominant had the Brewers’ relief corps been? When taking leads to the eighth inning, they were 84-3, including the postseason. That streak ended when Justin Turner belted a two-run homer in the eighth off Jeremy Jeffress, erasing the Brewers’ 3-2 lead.

“It’s definitely shocking because they’ve been so great, all season long,” said centerfielder Lorenzo Cain, who helped "initial out-getter" Wade Miley in a big way by stealing a two-run home run from David Freese with a leaping catch at the wall in the first inning.

“It happened; we’ve got to move on from it. You can’t hold it against them. They’ve been doing a great job. We’ll go to L.A. and try to start another winning streak. We’ll be ready to go.”

It was yet another struggle this postseason for Jeffress, who has not resembled the dominant reliever who went 8-1 with a 1.29 earned run average and 15 saves in 73 appearances in the regular season, holding opponents to a .182 batting average. In four appearances this October, he has allowed 11 hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings, which computes to a 7.71 ERA.

Manager Craig Counsell and Jeffress keep getting asked about this disturbing trend, and the answers continue to be the same: Everything is fine. Jeffress is getting bedeviled by soft contact. There is some truth to the soft contact thing, but Jeffress also is constantly pitching behind in the count and paying for it.

It was unconscionable to walk No. 8 hitter Austin Barnes with the bases loaded in the seventh, forcing in a run that cut the Brewers’ lead to 3-2. Barnes showed little interest in swinging when ahead in the count, but Jeffress declined to challenge him, throwing a low curveball for ball four.

So, with a rare late failure by the pen, a sterling effort by Miley was wasted and a crowd of 43,905 departed frustrated. Miley was cruising along with a two-hit shutout and 2-0 lead when Counsell removed him with two down in the sixth inning and a runner on first base, with Turner up.

“You want to stay out there but all year long it’s the route we’ve taken and it’s worked,” Miley said. “If you do it again, you’d probably do the same thing. Those guys have been so good down there. They’re going to be fine the rest of the way.”

Asked if it were easier to come out of games early because that plan has been so successful for the Brewers, Miley said, “I don’t think it’s ever easy. You want to be in the game. But, at the same time, there’s more understanding with the bullpen we have down there. As effective as they’ve been all year long, you trust them.”

The pitching plan after Miley was thrown out of whack immediately when rookie Corbin Burnes, who was so strong in the NLDS with four scoreless innings, didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced in the seventh, leaving with a run in and two on. After that, it was a scramble for Counsell to piece together the remaining innings.

“We were in really good shape with the effort that Wade gave us,” Counsell said. “The seventh was a tough inning. They used a pinch-hitter (Max Muncy), and then (Manny) Machado and (Cody) Bellinger. So, we knew that was going to be a tough inning.”

As for the decision to remove Miley when he did, which brought out the second-guessers on social media like the Oklahoma land rush after the bullpen faltered, Counsell said, “Look, you’re either too early or too late. At some point, you’ve got to make a decision, and I thought he was going through the heart of the lineup for the third time.

“We had a fresh Corbin Burnes, who has been wonderful for us this year.”

This is the way Counsell has run the bullpen all year, like it or not. Analytics show that most pitchers struggle the third time through an opponent’s lineup, and nobody crunches the numbers more than the Brewers. So, at that point of games, the "initial out-getter" usually gets the rest of the night off.

Accordingly, only two “initial out-getters” have covered six innings since the start of September – Miley on Sept. 4 against the Chicago Cubs in an 11-1 romp and Gio Gonzalez on Sept. 19 in a 7-0 breeze over Cincinnati. Operating in that manner, the Brewers went 20-7 that month to catch the Cubs and then take the NL Central crown from them in a one-game showdown.

That pitching plan also resulted in a three-game sweep of Colorado in the NLDS, with no “initial out-getter” going more than five innings. It had been exactly three weeks since the Brewers’ last defeat, so if you want to criticize Counsell for yanking his pitcher too soon, go for it. But consider that your team is 100-68 and playing for a berth in the World Series against the defending NL champs.

“You’ve got to give some credit to the Dodgers,” said Miley. “That’s a pretty good lineup over there. It happens. It’s baseball. They had some good at-bats. That’s how you score runs.”

So, it’s a best-of-five series now. First team to win three more gets to play for the big trophy. These teams are evenly matched. You didn’t really expect another sweep, did you?