Henriquez’s triple-digit fastballs could not prevent a soft-contact rally

Brice Turang singled off Edgardo Henriquez’s 93.2-mph cutter with a 1–1 count in the eighth inning, bringing David Hamilton home. Statcast measured the ball at only 71.2 mph off the bat. Milwaukee extended its lead to 6–4 without needing hard contact on the scoring swing.

Henriquez recorded one inning across parts of the seventh and eighth, allowing three hits, two earned runs and one walk with no strikeouts on 21 pitches. The second run scored after his departure, when Justin Wrobleski allowed Jake Bauers’ RBI single. Milwaukee won NLCS Game 2, 7–4, on October 12.

The outing paired exceptional measured fastball speed with ordinary swing-and-miss production and several favorable outcomes for the hitters on contact. The final pitching line cannot be explained by speed alone.

Two fastball classifications above 102 mph

Henriquez used 10 four-seamers, six sinkers and five cutters. His four-seamer averaged 102.1 mph and his sinker 102.2, compared with 100.7 and 100.9 in a baseline of 947 pitches from 60 Dodgers relief appearances, March 27 through September 13. The cutter averaged 94.8 mph, close to its season 94.7.

The four-seamer’s 47.6% share exceeded the 34.3% baseline. No slider or changeup appeared among the 21 pitches, although those classifications remain in the regular-season denominator. Omitting those unused pitches from the comparison would artificially increase the baseline shares of the types he did throw.

His three misses in 10 swings produced a 30.0% whiff rate, almost identical to the 30.1% regular-season rate. Two misses came on four-seamers and one on a cutter. Harder fastballs therefore coexisted with a familiar overall miss rate across a very small attempt sample.

Baserunning and soft hits matter to the final line

Henriquez entered the seventh with one out and allowed Cooper Pratt’s single. Will Smith then caught Pratt stealing second during Frelick’s at-bat, before Frelick popped out. The caught-stealing out belongs in the event record and Henriquez’s recorded outs, but it was not an additional physical pitch or a strikeout.

Hamilton singled to start the eighth and stole second before Chourio’s groundout advanced him to third. Turang’s soft single scored him. Contreras then walked, leaving Turang and Contreras on base when Henriquez departed with one out. Bauers’ single against Wrobleski scored Turang, with that run remaining charged to Henriquez.

Only one of five measured contacts against Henriquez reached 95 mph; their average exit velocity was 77.9 mph. Those figures complicate any claim that the Brewers broadly overpowered his pitches. They found baserunners and timely placement even without uniformly hard contact.

The appearance supports a narrower conclusion: increased fastball speed did not prevent contact from becoming hits, and the eighth-inning walk prolonged the threat. A subsequent outing would test the same high-speed classifications over more swings while separating pitch execution from hit placement and runner advancement.