Craig Stammen doesn’t need much time to decide where his October loyalties lie.
The Padres manager, after San Diego’s Game 4 loss in the National League Division Series, offered Milwaukee Brewers pitchers Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser a quick “congratulations, guys” on his way out of his postgame news conference, according to Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune. That little aside made his stance pretty clear: the Dodgers are not the team he’s pulling for in the postseason.
That feeling has plenty of history behind it. Stammen spent the 2017-22 seasons with the Padres, faced Los Angeles often, and even logged 48 of his 562 career regular-season appearances against the Dodgers. He also was part of the 2020 postseason, when the Dodgers eliminated the Padres and went on to win the World Series.
If he’s tuned in to the National League Championship Series, Stammen has already seen a familiar script play out. In Game 1 on Sunday, the Brewers again dragged Dodgers starter Jacob Misiorowski deep into the count, just as San Diego did in Game 1 of the NLDS on Oct.
- The Padres forced Misiorowski to 88 pitches over four innings and Milwaukee used five relievers over the final five innings in a 3-2 win.
The Dodgers then pushed him to 92 pitches in 4.1 innings, and the Brewers needed four relievers across the final 4.2 innings in a 2-1 victory.
Milwaukee is seven wins from its first World Series title, and it remains the only one of the four teams still standing through Sunday that has not already gotten all the way there. But for Stammen, the Brewers making a deep run would mean something beyond simple postseason schadenfreude.
If Milwaukee keeps winning, it bolsters the case that the Padres and Brewers really did play a heavyweight Division Series. Their four-game set was separated by five total runs, and the better the Brewers look against Los Angeles - and, if it comes to that, the American League champion - the better San Diego’s October résumé looks in retrospect.
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Dodgers May Make A Stunning NLCS Change Against The Brewers
Shohei Ohtanis October has been quieter than anyone around the Dodgers expected, and his recent slide has only added to the intrigue as the National League Championship Series shifts to Milwaukee. He has struggled at the plate in the postseason and has not homered since Aug. 18, a stretch that has put an uncomfortable spotlight on a hitter the Dodgers built so much of their lineup around.
With the series moving into Game 3, the Dodgers are at least weighing whether a change is needed, though no decision has been finalized. If they do decide to make a move, the ripple effects could be significant, with rookie Josue De Paula emerging as the most likely option to take over at designated hitter and give the lineup a different look against the Brewers. [Read more 🡒]
Yamamoto Keeps Giving Dodgers A Huge October Edge
Yoshinobu Yamamoto has already become the kind of October starter the Dodgers can lean on when the margin gets thin. He was sharp enough in the 2024 postseason to look comfortable in the middle of pressure, and his seven-inning, 10-strikeout effort in NLDS Game 3 only added to the sense that Los Angeles has something special in its rotation when the games matter most.
Now the Dodgers are turning to him again as the NLCS shifts into a tougher spot against the Brewers, with the series already tilted by a Game 1 loss. Yamamoto has given Los Angeles a huge edge all month, and the next start carries the familiar postseason weight of seeing just how far that edge can stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Face A Pivotal Game 2 With One Bat Drawing Attention
Mondays NLCS Game 2 carries the usual October weight for the Dodgers, but it also brings a familiar kind of pressure on the lineup to answer quickly after the series opener. With a second playoff game sharing the spotlight that night in a crowded baseball slate, attention has already turned to which bats are best positioned to swing the matchup, especially when matchup-based betting angles start to line up with the postseason narrative.
One name drawing plenty of attention is Freddie Freeman, whose presence in the middle of the order can change the feel of a game in a hurry when the Dodgers need a signature swing. The matchup on the mound adds another layer to the discussion, and with Milwaukee sending Logan Henderson to face Los Angeles, this becomes one of those October spots where every at-bat feels like it could tilt both the game and the bigger series momentum. [Read more 🡒]