MILWAUKEE -- The NLCS rotation picture is starting to take shape, and it puts two very different team-building approaches on display. The Brewers are leaning on arms they drafted, developed, or found through trades as prospects. The Dodgers are rolling out the kind of rotation only a giant payroll can assemble, with a deadline pickup followed by a trio of marquee free-agent additions.
For Milwaukee, the top three are Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser, with a bullpen game possible in Game 4. For Los Angeles, the expected order opens with Tarik Skubal and continues with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell.
Skubal gets the ball in Game 1 after the Dodgers wrapped up the NLDS in four games and never needed a winner-take-all start from him against the Braves. The left-hander made his Dodgers postseason debut in Game 1 of the NLDS and looked every bit like the kind of move that changes a series, striking out seven over six innings of one-run ball. His postseason ERA now sits at 1.97 across seven starts.
Yamamoto is lined up for Game 2 on Monday, which keeps him on his usual five days’ rest. The Dodgers initially waited until Game 3 to start him in the NLDS, and that choice was made with this round in mind. He was dominant again in that outing, throwing seven innings of one-run ball against the Braves, and if the series goes deep, he’d also be available for a potential Game 6 on Oct. 18 on normal rest.
Snell is projected for Game 3, giving him even more time after a stretch in which he had made just three appearances in 2 1/2 weeks because of left groin tightness that flared up in mid-September. He showed some rust in NLDS Game 2, so the extra rest could help him sharpen back up before this start.
Milwaukee’s side begins with Misiorowski, whose rise has been as fast as his fastball. He went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA in the regular season, leading the Majors in ERA, strikeouts with 252, WHIP at 0.80 and opponents’ average at .157.
That opponents’ mark was the lowest on record by a starter, and his WHIP ranked third-lowest. He wasn’t even a lock to be on the postseason roster as a rookie last year after fading late as a starter, but the Brewers used him in relief, watched him flash in three electric postseason appearances against the Cubs and Dodgers, and then rode that confidence into a huge year.
Misiorowski opened NLDS Game 1 by firing a 104.8 mph first pitch, the hardest fastball in the postseason since pitch tracking began in 2008. The rest of that outing was more of a grind.
The Padres fouled off 30 pitches over four innings, and he was out of the game by the fifth. Still, Milwaukee kept him fresh, even warming him in the ninth inning of Game 4 in case closer Trevor Megill ran into trouble.
When the Brewers finished off San Diego, it meant Misiorowski would be ready for the Dodgers.
“It was sick for the bullpen to keep that guy fresh so he can take care of Game 1,” Megill said. “I’m glad he didn’t come in. We didn’t really need him.”
Logan Henderson is next, and he comes in with a different kind of résumé but the same kind of trust. The 24-year-old right-hander has made 24 Major League starts in the regular season and postseason and has never allowed more than three runs in one of them. One of his biggest moments came on Aug. 16 at Dodger Stadium, when he outpitched Skubal in a seven-inning win that gave Milwaukee the series and the season series and helped lock in the Brewers’ place atop the overall standings.
That performance also underscored why Milwaukee refused to move him at the Trade Deadline. Henderson was one of the young arms other clubs tried to pry away, and after the Brewers held firm, he tracked down president of baseball operations Matt Arnold and said, “Thank you for not dishing me away.”
Jake Bauers said, “There hasn’t been a pitch in a situation this season that’s looked like it’s been too big for him,” and added, “What impresses me most is just the poise, and you can feel it on defense. You look at him and he looks rock-steady up there.”
Pat Murphy was just as direct. “I didn’t want to lose Logan.
I don’t care who it’s for,” the Brewers manager said. “As long as he stays healthy, he’s going to pitch for a long time.”
Game 3 is expected to go to Gasser, a left-hander who earned the spot with a strong finish to the regular season and a gritty NLDS outing against the Padres, when he had to work around defensive mistakes. He posted a 1.67 ERA over his final six regular-season appearances, and while he has a 5.91 ERA in two career starts against the Dodgers, that number may not tell much about where he is right now.
The current plan has Gasser starting ahead of right-hander Dustin May, the former Dodger Milwaukee acquired from St. Louis at the Trade Deadline.
May’s stuff has drawn praise, but the results haven’t matched it, including in a Game 3 start in San Diego when Murphy pulled him in the middle of an at-bat after five straight pitches missed the zone to begin the fourth inning.
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