How are the brewers planning to limit the firepower of the Dodgers?

The Brewers were the last to participate in the NLCS – and the playoffs – seven years ago, in 2011, when Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun hit the 96-66 record. They lost in six points to the Cardinals, who beat the suspect Milwaukee striker. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are in their third consecutive NLCS appearance (and their fourth in six years). Last year, they won their first victory in this pack. they beat the Cubs in five before losing to Houston in the World Series.

Is part of this story relevant? Maybe not at first sight. But the past defeat of Milwaukee could offer a window on what they will have to win. In this series, the St. Louis runners experienced major difficulties, giving up 19 innings in 24 innings and 1/3. So what did the Cardinals do? They used their office for the next 28 2/3 innings. Lance Lynn has launched in five games this series; Jason Motte, Fernando Salas and Octavio Dotel followed each other at four.

At the time, using the Redbird's pitchers seemed to reflect Tony La Russa's mania – she now seems ahead of her time (even if she's still a little manic). The Brewers enter the series with fewer pitchers than the Cardinals, but a better concealer. Josh Hader, Jeremy Jeffress, Corey Knebel and Joakim Soria are expected to record a total of runs similar to Milwaukee if the Brewers want to succeed. Director Craig Counsell did not specify his specific plan of use, but he told reporters on Thursday: "It's no secret that we're going to use our pitch a little bit differently than the tradi- would like it. "That's good news!

The problem is that the Dodgers can really, really hit. LA was second in the NBL in OBP and led the league in slugging, going and going – they scored more points in 2018 than in their 104 wins in 2017. They spanked the Braves shots in the division series. Even if Counsell relies on his left-handers (Gio Gonzalez and Wade Miley as starters, Hader and presumably Dan Jennings in the office, although Milwaukee did not announce his final list) to neutralize Joc Pederson, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy, so. The Dodgers still have Manny Machado, Justin Turner and David Freese. The Milwaukee starters, whatever their abilities, will struggle to keep this group under control even four rounds of the night.

Again, it would be a mistake to count the Brewers out of any slugfest, especially since the Dodgers will be left-footers – Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill – in three of the first four games. (Walker Buehler, behind the only loss to the Dodgers, will be the only one to be right.) Milwaukee's best hitters, even left-handed Christian Yelich, hit the left-handers well. This year, Yelich was operated against left-handed, 983; Lorenzo Cain, 979; Jesus Aguilar, .929. Apart from them, Travis Shaw and Mike Moustakas can only hit the right-handers, and Orlando Arcia, Hernan Perez and Jonathan Schoop can not hit at all.

If the bats and Milwaukee's pen deliver their balls, these games will probably be articulated around the median, fifth, sixth and seventh rockies, when Dave Roberts will decide if his starter will be withdrawn and when the starter of Milwaukee will have been retired for a long time. Although the Dodgers are sure of their success at Kenley Jansen, their average opponents are, compared to Milwaukee, a ragtag crew, starting from Kenta Maeda and Alex Wood to Ryan Madson (from the 5.47 second this year). season) and candidate Pedro Baez, who has always been alive. .

The Dodgers have all the pitching they need. The outstanding question is whether Roberts will be able to deploy it artfully. The Dodgers' pen dazzled in the Division Series and in the NLCS of last year; in the World Series, not so much. With all that, give me L.A. in six: the Brewers are a great ball club, but these are not the Astros, and the NLCS is very under pressure, but it's not the World Series.