The Brewers are headed into Wednesday night’s NLCS Game 3 with a chance to put the Dodgers in a brutal spot, and that alone makes the lineup conversation worth watching.
Milwaukee already did plenty right in the first two games, but this one carries a different kind of weight. A win would give the Brewers a three-game lead, and history says that’s a mountain only one team has climbed in the postseason - the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
That’s why manager Pat Murphy still has a call to make before first pitch. The bigger question isn’t whether the Brewers can feel good about Game 2.
It’s whether they should tweak a lineup that worked and bring Luis Lara back in against left-hander Blake Snell. The answer, at least for now, looks like yes on Lara and no on Joey Ortiz.
The lineup that makes the most sense keeps David Hamilton in the mix and swaps Lara in for Sal Frelick in right field:
- Jackson Chourio, LF
- Brice Turang, 2B
- William Contreras, C
- Jake Bauers, 1B
- Christian Yelich, DH
- Garrett Mitchell, CF
- Cooper Pratt, SS
- Luis Lara, RF
- David Hamilton, 3B
That’s the same group Milwaukee used in Game 2, with Lara the only change.
There’s a real argument for Ortiz, too. Adding another right-handed bat against Snell is logical on paper, and the Brewers clearly weighed it.
But Hamilton’s speed gives Milwaukee something different at the bottom of the order, and Snell’s numbers against lefties point in that direction as well. Right-handed hitters batted .200 against Snell in the regular season, while lefties did a little better at .209.
His strikeout-to-walk ratio also fell from 4.38 against righties to 2.50 against lefties.
Hamilton also earned another look with what he did in Game 2. He went 2-for-3, scored three runs and stole two bases, becoming a real problem once he got aboard. With him at the bottom, opposing pitchers had to deal with the threat of his speed before turning back to the top of the Brewers’ order.
Ortiz, by contrast, has only one hit in the playoffs in five games played.
Lara brings a different kind of spark. The switch-hitter drove in the go-ahead run in Game 1, and his bat gives Milwaukee another live option in a matchup that should demand it.
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