How two walks complicated Shane Drohan’s 25-pitch NLCS start

Shane Drohan's first inning in NLCS Game 4 ended without a run, but it required 22 pitches and an inning-ending double play. After getting ahead of the first two Dodgers 0-2, he struck out Shohei Ohtani and walked Mookie Betts. Freddie Freeman also walked before Will Smith's grounder gave Milwaukee its remaining two outs.

Drohan faced only five hitters in the Brewers' 6-4 win on October 15. His line contained one hit, two walks and one strikeout in one inning, with an earned run that scored after he departed. The pitch record shows how the first inning became demanding despite the favourable opening counts, and why the double play needs to be understood alongside the quality of the contact.

Ohtani took sliders at 88.8 and 89.6 mph for called strikes. Drohan then missed with a 98.2 mph sinker, got a foul on another sinker and finished with a 91.4 mph slider below the zone. The fifth pitch produced his only swing and miss of the appearance.

Betts took a 97.5 mph sinker and an 83.6 mph curveball for strikes. From 0-2, he saw four balls and fouled off one sinker during a seven-pitch walk. The last two sinkers both registered 97.2 mph and crossed at nearly identical locations, off the same side of the plate and near the bottom of Betts' recorded strike zone. He took both.

Those two plate appearances illustrate the difference between obtaining an advantage and completing an out. Drohan secured four called strikes in his first seven pitches, but Betts' subsequent takes kept a runner aboard. Freeman's five-pitch walk then began with three consecutive balls, putting two runners on with one out.

Smith took two low curveballs, fouled a four-seamer and took another four-seamer high to reach 3-1. He grounded the next pitch, a 95.4 mph sinker, to Cooper Pratt. The shortstop started the double play, with Brice Turang relaying to Jake Bauers to end the inning.

Smith's ball left the bat at 96.8 mph, above the 95 mph hard-hit threshold, with a minus-19-degree launch angle. The downward trajectory and completed infield turn produced the escape. The result was valuable, but it does not support describing the contact as weak. Drohan had thrown 12 balls against 10 strikes in the inning, and two of his three outs came on that single swing.

Kyle Tucker opened the second by fouling a sinker and taking a slider low. On the third pitch, he grounded a 95.7 mph sinker through the left side at 103.4 mph. Both balls put in play against Drohan were hard-hit grounders; one became a double play and the other a single.

Dustin May entered with Tucker on first and no outs. Teoscar Hernández singled Tucker to third, and Andy Pages later singled him home. Tucker was the one earned run charged to Drohan, although nobody scored while Drohan was on the mound. Ohtani's subsequent three-run homer accounted for the other runs in the inning, all charged to May.

Drohan threw 14 sinkers among his 25 pitches, a 56.0% share, compared with 439 of 2,001 pitches, or 21.9%, during the regular season. The Game 4 sinkers averaged 96.8 mph against a 94.9 mph season average. Seven were balls, and the Dodgers made contact on all five swings against the pitch.

His overall miss rate was one in seven swings, or 14.3%, against 234 in 962, or 24.3%, during the regular season. Those comparisons describe a five-batter appearance against a baseline spanning 33 outings, including 19 starts. They do not establish a lasting repertoire change or explain the decision to replace him. The immediate issue was completing plate appearances: the early strikes were followed by walks, and the hard-hit double play kept those walks from becoming first-inning runs.