Ashby increased his sinker share and finished Game 2 with a changeup

Aaron Ashby’s only changeup of NLCS Game 2 was also the game’s final pitch. Miguel Rojas swung through the 93.0-mph offering below the zone after two sinker strikes and two balls, completing Milwaukee’s 7–4 win on October 12.

Ashby retired all five hitters he faced in 1⅔ innings, with two strikeouts and no hits or walks. He entered after Abner Uribe struck out Mookie Betts to start the eighth, protecting a 5–4 lead before Milwaukee added two runs in the bottom half.

The outing relied heavily on the sinker for the work leading to those final pitches. Fourteen of his 21 pitches were sinkers, yet the last strikeout demonstrates why the most-used pitch need not supply every finish.

A sinker increase across two consecutive games

The sinker’s 66.7% Game 2 share exceeded Ashby’s 52.0% baseline from 1,538 pitches in 74 Brewers relief appearances, March 26 through September 26. He also threw four curveballs, two sliders and the single changeup. His lone regular-season start remains outside that role-matched primary sample.

The sinker averaged 98.2 mph, compared with 97.7 during those relief appearances. It supplied three called strikes and two conventional whiffs in seven swings. One of those whiffs was a caught foul tip by Rojas, and the other was a swing that missed. The distinction preserves what actually happened to the bat and ball.

Ashby’s four overall recorded whiffs in 11 swings produced a 36.4% rate, against 32.2% in the primary baseline. He obtained another miss with the slider and the last with the changeup. The increase is descriptive: five hitters and 11 swing attempts cannot establish a new sustained level.

The fielders also completed important outs

Freddie Freeman struck out swinging to begin Ashby’s work, and Teoscar Hernández grounded out. In the ninth, Shohei Ohtani flew out to left and Will Smith lined out sharply to right. Smith’s ball was the only one of three measured contacts that reached 95 mph. A perfect line therefore included a hard-hit ball caught by a fielder.

Rojas took the first sinker for a strike and tipped the second into Contreras’ glove. Ashby’s next sinker missed, and a curveball finished near the ground. At 2–2, the changeup ended the at-bat. Its position below the recorded zone explains the observed swing, without demonstrating what Rojas anticipated.

The previous night, Ashby used 26 pitches for six outs and one strikeout, generating two misses in 12 swing attempts. His Game 2 record combined a higher sinker share with more finishing support from the other classifications. The next comparison should ask whether that combination persists when hitters make him extend the count, while retaining the role played by the defense in this five-hitter outing.