DL Hall, Pitch by Pitch: NLCS Game 3 Analysis

Tommy Edman saw four curveballs before DL Hall showed him a sinker in the sixth inning. Edman missed the first two curves, fouled off the third and took the fourth in the dirt. Hall then put a 98.1 mph sinker into the lower part of the recorded zone for a called third strike.

The strikeout stranded runners at second and third after Hall had already struck out Enrique Hernández. Milwaukee had just lost a 1–0 lead on Will Smith’s double, but Hall kept the deficit at 2–1. The Brewers took the lead back in the next half-inning and won Game 3, 6–2.

Hall recorded seven outs, allowed one hit and no walks, and struck out two on 28 pitches. He inherited two runners from Abner Uribe and allowed neither to score. His comparison sample contains 965 physical pitches in 46 regular-season Milwaukee relief appearances from March 26 through September 27.

Different pitches supplied the two escape outs

Eleven sinkers led the mix at 39.3%, against 36.1% in the baseline. They averaged 97.4 mph, up from 95.6, and generated three called strikes. Hall’s sinker worked as a contact pitch as well: six attempts at it produced no misses, and all six became balls in play.

He used seven sweepers, or 25.0% of the outing, compared with 7.8% in the season sample. His five curveballs and four sliders provided different shapes alongside them. The curve produced two misses in three attempts, and the slider one miss in its only attempt. One changeup completed the repertoire.

Hall finished Hernández with an 88.7 mph slider before using the curveball sequence and sinker against Edman. The two strikeouts therefore came from different finishing pitches. The overall 25.0% whiff rate represents four misses in 16 attempts, accompanied by six called strikes.

Six pitches in the seventh, then one final hard single

Milwaukee moved ahead 4–2 on Jake Bauers’ and Garrett Mitchell’s seventh-inning home runs. Hall then retired Betts, Freeman and Teoscar Hernández on six pitches in the bottom half. All three put sinkers into play. Freeman’s 103.6 mph liner was the hardest contact of those outs, so the inning’s efficiency included a sharply struck ball finding a fielder.

Kyle Tucker required eight pitches before flying out in the eighth, and Muncy also flew out. Ohtani then hit Hall’s first-pitch sinker at 113.5 mph for a single. Trevor Megill inherited that runner and retired Smith, completing the inning without adding a run to Hall’s line.

All six balls put into play against Hall have measured exit velocities. Two were hard-hit, and the average was 88.6 mph. His strongest contribution was the combination of the initial two-strikeout escape and the economical seventh, rather than a claim that every contact was harmless.

Hall’s higher sweeper share and faster sinker are measurable changes. The outing also shows why one pitch’s value cannot be reduced to missed swings: the sinker supplied the called strike that ended the sixth and all three contacts that ended the seventh.