Pat Murphy has leaned hard on Abner Uribe all October, but the Brewers may be asking too much of one arm.
Uribe has been Murphy’s workhorse for the last two seasons. He appeared in 75 games last regular season, then got into 61 this year despite a 20-day stint on the injured list with a forearm strain.
In the postseason, Murphy has gone all in: Uribe has pitched in all seven of Milwaukee’s October games so far. Through the first six, the gamble looked fine on the surface, with Uribe firing six scoreless innings.
The deeper numbers tell a different story. In all four of his Division Series outings, Uribe struggled badly.
He threw only 37.9% of his pitches in the strike zone, walked two batters, hit one batter, and struck out only one. He also nearly gave up a game-tying home run in Game 4, but Garrett Mitchell saved it.
His 9.22 xERA and 6.33 SIERA matched the reality much more closely than his 3 ⅔ scoreless innings did. His slider command, especially, was not up to par across the series.
He steadied himself with two strong appearances to open the NLCS, but Game 3 brought the old problems back. Uribe entered with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, then walked the bases loaded with one out before leaving a first-pitch sinker over the plate. Will Smith ripped it for a go-ahead double.
The Brewers’ handling of the inning didn’t help. Uribe was in a tricky spot in the lineup, with left-handers Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani coming up if a runner reached, and Max Muncy also a candidate to pinch-hit.
Milwaukee had DL Hall, a lefty, and Chad Patrick, a right-hander, warming in the bullpen, but stayed with Uribe for Ohtani and Smith. Afterward, Murphy said he wanted the Uribe-versus-Smith matchup, but that explanation doesn’t really hold up once the inning started unraveling.
None of this means using Uribe was a mistake in the broad sense. He’s pitched seven times in the last 12 days, and the off days built into the schedule make that workload heavy but still manageable over a short stretch. The problem is simple: that pace can’t keep up for the rest of the postseason, and Uribe already hasn’t looked sharp enough to justify it.
If the Brewers have the lead in Game 4, they should be pressing to close out a sweep and head into the World Series with a full week to reset before Game 1. Under those conditions, Uribe ought to be the one reliever who sits. With Milwaukee up 3-0, he shouldn’t pitch again in Los Angeles, and when he does return, his wildness needs to be watched closely.
October is the time to push workloads farther than you normally would. It is not the time to ignore the warning signs.
Murphy already pushed his iron man too far on Wednesday. If he keeps riding him like this, he risks doing the same to Uribe’s overall workload unless he starts trusting a couple of other arms in the bullpen.
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