Miley in the first leg of the fifth match.(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports)

LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Brewers have put the most important franchise game in 36 years on a whole new level.

Wade Miley faced a batter in the fifth game of the National League championship series on Wednesday and was quickly removed from the match by coach Craig Counsell, the most extreme use of the ever-popular "opener" . The bullpenning strategy that the game saw in October.

Miley made her career debut after three days off, after a five-hit performance with five hits in the second game. With the Brewers losing the fourth game in 13 innings to score Game 2-2, Counsell will apparently be starting. with Miley at full rest then.

So, he persuaded Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to start his leftist lineup – David Freese and Chris Taylor on Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig, among others – before reversing the meetings to make him lose his head.

Roberts did not fully bite the pre-game bait, preferring to leave Max Muncy, the left-handed batter, who took a rare start to second base.

After defeating striker Cody Bellinger, Miley was replaced by Brandon Woodruff, who was the winning pitcher in the NLCS 'first game, when he pitched two scoreless innings of Gio Gonzalez. Woodruff also began – or "opened" – the first game of the NL Division series against the Colorado Rockies, throwing three innings without offense.

Through five games of the NLCS, the starting length of the Brewers looks like this:

  • Game 1: Gonzalez, two innings.
  • Game 2: Miley, 5 ⅔ sleeves.
  • Game 3: Jhoulys Chacin, 5 ⅓ sleeves.
  • Game 4: Gonzalez, a sleeve (before it's removed for an ankle injury).
  • Game 5: Miley, thrown at a hitter.

The Dodgers have opted for a much more conventional strategy, a strategy they've been used to for a decade: handing the ball over to Clayton Kershaw.

Get ready for another long night at Dodger Stadium.

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