Pat Murphy’s bullpen management was the storyline that kept repeating itself in the Brewers’ NLDS win over the Padres, and this time the lesson from August stuck.
When Milwaukee got swept at Petco Park earlier in the season, two of those losses were shaped by how Murphy handled his pitchers. In the opener, Logan Henderson had worked six strong innings in a 3-2 defeat, but Murphy left him in after a one-out single to Ty France in the seventh. Jackson Merrill followed with a two-run homer that flipped the game.
The third game was even messier. In a 4-3 extra-inning loss, Murphy sent Dustin May back out to begin the eighth.
May walked Xander Bogaerts, Murphy turned to Chad Patrick, and Patrick walked the bases loaded. Aaron Ashby then entered to face Jake Cronenworth, who tied it with an infield single.
Milwaukee briefly regained the lead in the 11th, but Antonio Senzatela allowed two runs in the bottom half and the Brewers lost again.
In the NLDS, Murphy took the opposite approach. He never wanted to let a starter see the Padres’ order a third time, and he was able to do that because Milwaukee’s bullpen kept delivering in a short series.
Jacob Misiorowski lasted only four innings in Game 1, and the bullpen took it from there with five scoreless innings. Henderson threw five innings in Game 2, and Milwaukee’s relievers allowed only one unearned run.
May was out after three innings in Game 3, and the bullpen’s only earned run came on a solo homer allowed by JoJo Romero. In Game 4, Murphy lifted Robert Gasser after four innings despite the fact that Gasser had given up just three hits and one run, and the bullpen shut the Padres out over the final five innings.
By the numbers, Brewers relievers logged 19 innings, compared to 16 from the starters, and gave up just one earned run, the Romero homer. That came out to a 0.47 ERA.
Murphy also stayed disciplined about when to use his best arms. There wasn’t much garbage time in a series where no team led by more than two runs, but he still resisted pushing his leverage relievers too early.
In Game 1, Senzatela entered for Misiorowski, even though he is not typically one of Murphy’s top high-leverage options. Senzatela allowed two hits and recorded two outs before Ashby finished the inning.
After Henderson left Game 2, Murphy went to Romero, who got two outs and walked a batter before Uribe came in for the final out. In Game 3, with Milwaukee down a run in the bottom of the fourth, Romero and Senzatela handled the first 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Then, in Game 4, Ashby was the first trusted arm out of the bullpen with a one-run lead, and he delivered three hitless innings. Uribe and Megill, Milwaukee’s usual eighth- and ninth-inning pairing, closed it out and sent the Brewers to the NLCS.
After four games, Murphy’s plan is obvious: save the top arms for the moment that matters most and trust the depth to cover the rest. He’s betting on a bullpen that can handle the load and show up when the pressure spikes.
On the other side, the Padres’ bullpen usage told a different story. Murphy called it “the best bullpen in baseball,” and Craig Stammen treated it like one, leaning heavily on his top relievers while keeping his starters on short leashes as well. The difference was that Stammen never seemed to get enough from the depth behind them.
In Game 1, he used Bradgley Rodriguez, Yuki Matsui, Jason Adam, and Adrian Morejon, with only Mason Miller left unused. San Diego’s bullpen allowed just one run, a Contreras homer off Morejon, and that was enough to keep the game within reach.
Game 2 was more demanding. After Michael King exited, Stammen went to Matsui and Rodriguez before asking Miller for his first six-out save since 2024. Miller was dominant in the eighth, but in the ninth he looked worn down, lost command, and the Brewers drew three walks before Jackson Chourio ended it with a walk-off single on Miller’s 40th pitch.
For Game 3, Miller and Morejon were unavailable because of what Stammen called “shoulder stickiness.” When Nick Pivetta left the game, Stammen still leaned on the same core group - Adam, Matsui, and Rodriguez - before turning to Game 2 starter Michael King for another 40 pitches.
King faded in the ninth after getting the first out, walking two straight batters and then allowing a 107-mph one-hopper to Christian Yelich. But Yelich hit it right into the shift, and Bogaerts turned two to seal the Padres’ win.
By Game 4, the bullpen was stretched thin. Stammen pulled Walker Buehler after three innings and one earned run, then used Game 1 starter Robbie Ray, who surrendered a triple to Garrett Mitchell.
Mitchell scored two batters later to give Milwaukee a lead it never gave back. After Ray, Stammen cycled back through Rodriguez, Matsui, Adam, and Miller, who wasn’t as overpowering as usual but kept the Brewers scoreless.
With San Diego down 3-1, Joe Musgrove finished the game with two hitless innings in the eighth and ninth.
Milwaukee heads to the NLCS with a bullpen that allowed one earned run in 19 innings and, just as important, one that still has gas in the tank. Only Ashby threw more than four innings, only Uribe appeared in all four games, and no one worked more than three innings in a single outing. Romero and Senzatela gave Murphy useful middle-inning options, and Chad Patrick, Shane Drohan, and Kyle Harrison have yet to pitch.
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