The Brewers’ first postseason roster is in, and the big call was the one everyone was watching: they went with 13 pitchers.
That decision gave the club room to add Kyle Harrison, who made the cut. Beyond that, the roster came in pretty clean, with no real stunners after a regular season that ended with the team in relatively good shape health-wise, aside from some restorative absences from Joey Ortiz and Andrew Vaughn in the final week.
Here’s how the pitching group shakes out: Aaron Ashby, Shane Drohan, Robert Gasser, DL Hall, Kyle Harrison, Logan Henderson, Dustin May, Trevor Megill, Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, JoJo Romero, Antonio Senzatela and Abner Uribe.
That group includes six left-handers - Ashby, Drohan, Gasser, Hall, Harrison and Romero - and five of them could reasonably be asked to give multiple innings. San Diego’s lineup leans right-handed, so the matchup isn’t quite as favorable on that front as it might have been against a club like the Dodgers or Cubs, but it still gives Milwaukee some flexibility. If Gasser is the starter for Game 3 and Game 4 turns into a bullpen game, the Brewers could lean on Drohan, Hall, Harrison, May and Patrick to soak up a lot of those innings.
The position-player side was much simpler. If the Brewers had gone with 12 pitchers, the extra spot might have opened the door for a more interesting decision, but that wasn’t the route they took.
They also would have needed to pass on Bo Naylor as an extra catcher, and that never happened. As a result, Brandon Lockridge is off the roster, and so is a more outside-the-box name like Andrew Fischer.
Ortiz and Vaughn were expected to be on the roster, and they are, which is a good sign after both dealt with minor issues - injury and/or health - at the end of the season.
It’s a strong group, and now it’s just about seeing whether they play to that level. The game is set for 7:30 tonight, and there will also be a Division Series thread up during the day. Happy baseball.
In Other News...
Brewers Hold On After Wild Ninth Inning Call Sparks Padres Fury
A bizarre ninth-inning moment at American Family Field became the defining flashpoint of Game 1 of the National League Division Series, when Ty France sent a fly ball high enough to strike a cable on the roof before Jackson Chourio made the catch for the Brewers. The umpires ruled it an out under the ballparks ground rules, deciding the ball had hit over fair territory, and the call immediately turned a tense postseason game into the kind of replay-worthy controversy that tends to linger long after the final pitch.
For Milwaukee, the ruling helped preserve a hard-fought win, but it also left the Padres simmering over how the final inning unfolded. Craig Stammen and Pat Murphy both addressed the play afterward, along with players involved, as the odd sequence became less about the mechanics of a ruling and more about the pressure-cooker reality of October baseball, where a single strange bounce can reshape a whole series opener. [Read more 🡒]
Jacob Misiorowski's Wild NLDS Start Left Brewers Fans With One Concern
Jacob Misiorowskis NLDS debut gave Brewers fans exactly the kind of electricity they have come to expect from the rookie right-hander, and then some. In Game 1 against the Padres, he reached a new velocity peak with a 104.8 mph pitch and kept the fastball coming, piling up 52 pitches at 100 mph or harder while working four innings and striking out six.
For Milwaukee, the appeal is obvious. Misiorowskis stuff can change a series in a hurry, and he left the opener having allowed two runs on four hits and a walk before the Brewers turned to the bullpen with the game still hanging in the balance. The only real question now is how that kind of effort shapes what comes next, because outings like that can be a weapon and a warning at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Willson Contreras Just Changed An Early Brewers Playoff Storyline
The Brewers opened their NL Division Series with a tight 3-2 win over the Padres, and the biggest swing came from a familiar face who had been at the center of a late-season flashpoint. Willson Contreras delivered the go-ahead solo homer in the seventh inning after Jackson Chourio had already dragged Milwaukee back into the game with a tying two-run shot earlier, giving the Brewers the kind of timely power they have been chasing as October pressure ramps up.
Contreras performance carries extra weight because manager Pat Murphy benched him late in the regular season over a lack of hustle, a decision that had left his role under the microscope going into the postseason. Instead of letting that become the headline, Contreras answered in the first game that mattered most, giving Milwaukee an early playoff storyline built around response, not resentment, even if the full impact of that turnaround is still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]