Pitcher-batter matchups get talked about like they’re all about handedness, but the Brewers showed Friday night why that’s only part of the picture. Milwaukee kept its left-handed bats in against Texas Rangers lefty Cody Bradford, and the decision helped fuel a 6-1 win.
Pat Murphy’s club didn’t just stick with lefties because Bradford was on the mound. They did it because Bradford is a reverse-splits pitcher, the kind whose arsenal changes the usual math.
Righties had actually posted a .707 OPS against him in his big-league career entering the night, while lefties were at .731. That fits with how he works: a higher arm slot, more than 85% fastballs this year, plus occasional slight cut and a changeup.
The visual problem for hitters is part of the story. From a right-handed batter’s view, Bradford’s fastball and changeup can blur together until the last moment.
For a lefty, the separation is easier to pick up. That helped explain why Murphy started Christian Yelich, Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, and David Hamilton.
"The way we look at it, it's not any lefty versus any lefty, but there are times when that guy's kind of a reverse-split guy, there's times when we leave our lefties in there," he said.
Murphy also liked the bunting angle. Because Bradford falls off toward third base as he delivers, a drag bunt can be tough to defend, especially from a left-handed hitter who can get moving toward first base immediately.
"Sometimes it's easier to bunt left-on-left with that guy falling off the other way," Murphy said.
Milwaukee put that plan to work right away. Brice Turang opened the bottom of the first with a bunt toward first, stepped into it, and beat the play after Bradford’s throw went astray.
Turang moved to third on Jackson Chourio’s flyout and scored on William Contreras’s groundout. Yelich then added an RBI double off the wall in left-center to bring in Bauers, who had walked.
Hamilton chipped in again in the sixth with a left-on-left fastball lined up the middle to score Mitchell. Then, after Bradford exited, the Brewers kept the same approach against lefty reliever Adam Macko in the eighth. Frelick and Hamilton bunted for back-to-back singles to start the inning, and both later came around to score as Milwaukee pushed the lead to 6-1.
"We executed that three or four times perfectly," Murphy said. "So, yeah, sometimes you leave lefties in."
That was the night in a nutshell: Milwaukee ignored the simple version of the matchup, found the edges, and turned them into offense. It was another example of the little things adding up for a team that has made a habit of winning those moments.
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