How Milwaukee’s bullpen closed the Dodgers out after a four-run second

Milwaukee needed its bullpen for eight innings in NLCS Game 4. The assignment began with a four-run second, but the Dodgers did not score again. Dustin May steadied the game before JoJo Romero and Aaron Ashby protected the Brewers' comeback in a 6-4 win on October 15 that completed the series sweep.

Their common contribution was keeping walks out of the innings. The three relievers faced 31 batters without issuing one, throwing 76 of 107 pitches for strikes, or 71.0%. They allowed seven hits and struck out seven. Four Dodgers runs crossed while May was pitching, but one belonged to starter Shane Drohan, leaving the bullpen charged with three earned runs.

The seven scoreless innings after the second were not free of scoring chances. Los Angeles reached third base in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth. Milwaukee escaped all three threats, with Romero and Ashby using breaking balls to finish important strikeouts.

May entered the second with Kyle Tucker on first and nobody out. Tucker had singled against Drohan. Teoscar Hernández singled against May, and Andy Pages' single later brought Tucker home for the game's first run. That inherited runner accounts for the difference between the runs crossing during the bullpen's work and the runs charged to it.

With two outs, May threw Shohei Ohtani three consecutive cutters. The first missed, and Ohtani swung through the second. He drove the third, a 95.1 mph pitch tracked near the bottom of the zone, 428 feet to right-centre at 113.1 mph. The three-run homer put Los Angeles ahead 4-0 and accounted for every run charged to May.

May completed the second, then retired the Dodgers in order on eight pitches in the third. Max Muncy's single was his only baserunner in a scoreless fourth. Those final two innings required 23 pitches, 18 of them strikes, and ended with Milwaukee trailing 4-2. May finished three innings with four hits allowed and one strikeout on 44 pitches.

His mix differed substantially from the one he used across 31 regular-season starts. Four-seam fastballs accounted for just two of 44 pitches, or 4.5%, against 595 of 2,399 during the season, or 24.8%. Sweepers rose to 13 of 44, or 29.5%, from 425 of 2,399, or 17.7%. He generated seven misses on 26 swings, a 26.9% rate, despite finishing only one strikeout. The homer was decisive damage within his outing, but the subsequent outs kept the deficit from growing.

Milwaukee had tied the game when Romero entered for the fifth. He struck out Ohtani looking on three sweepers, retired Mookie Betts on a grounder and struck out Freddie Freeman swinging. Garrett Mitchell's homer then gave the Brewers a 5-4 lead before Romero returned for the sixth.

Tucker doubled with one out and reached third on Teoscar Hernández's groundout. Romero answered with five consecutive sweepers to Muncy. After two fouls extended the at-bat and a ball missed outside, the fifth pitch drew a swing and miss below the tracked zone. The tying run stayed at third.

The sweeper ended all three of Romero's strikeouts. He used it for 14 of 24 pitches, or 58.3%, compared with 335 of 922, or 36.3%, across 55 regular-season appearances. Its average speed rose from 82.9 to 85.0 mph. Romero also threw a first-pitch strike to all seven hitters he faced, completing two scoreless innings on 24 pitches.

Ashby opened the seventh by allowing Pages' 111.4 mph double. Enrique Hernández's sacrifice bunt moved Pages to third with one out. Ohtani then fouled an 85.3 mph slider, missed a 99.3 mph sinker and missed an 86.5 mph slider below the zone. Betts grounded out to end the inning.

The eighth presented the same base-out situation after Will Smith doubled and advanced on Sal Frelick's fielding error. Tucker flied out, leaving Ashby to face Teoscar Hernández with two outs. Hernández missed the opening sinker. After a changeup in the dirt, he missed consecutive curveballs, the last at 84.7 mph, and Smith was stranded.

Ashby used 13 curveballs in 39 pitches, a 33.3% share against 353 of 1,582, or 22.3%, during his 75 regular-season appearances. Pages saw four consecutive curves in the ninth and took the last for strike three. Ashby's sinker remained about half his mix and averaged 98.9 mph across 20 pitches, compared with 97.7 mph across 826 during the season.

Ashby's three-inning save required 39 pitches and included seven misses on 20 swings. It also included five balls hit at least 95 mph among eight tracked balls in play, a denominator that includes the sacrifice bunt. In the ninth, Tommy Edman's 110.6 mph grounder and Enrique Hernández's 107.9 mph line drive became outs. The final line should not be read as evidence that Los Angeles stopped hitting the ball hard.

After David Hamilton's insurance homer made it 6-4, Ashby finished the ninth in order. Together, Romero and Ashby supplied five scoreless innings, allowing three hits with six strikeouts and no walks on 63 pitches. Milwaukee's bullpen recovered from the second inning by limiting additional baserunners and finishing threats that hard contact continued to create.