Although the 25-man rosters for the 2018 National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers will not be announced until Friday morning, their respective starting pitching rotations have been for the best-of seven series, which begins on Friday evening at 5:09 p.m. PT at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

As expected and as a surprise to absolutely no one, Dodgers ace left-hander Clayton Kershaw (9–5, 2.73 ERA) will get the ball for Game-1, opposite Brewers left-hander Gio Gonzalez (10-11, 4.21 ERA).

In his eight innings of work in Game-2 of the NLDS, Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw was absolutely brilliant, allowing no runs and only two hits to a very dangerous Atlanta Braves team, needing only 85 pitches to do so. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But in somewhat of a surprise move, or at least an unexpected one, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has opted to have fellow left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu (7–3, 1.97 ERA) start Game-2 – also in Milwaukee – opposite Brewers left-hander Wade Miley (5–2, 2.57 ERA), and have right-hander Walker Buehler (8–5, 2.62 ERA) start Game-3 at Dodger Stadium on Monday, October 15, opposite Brewers right-hander Jhoulys Chacin (15-8, 3.50 ERA).

Ryu, as you recall, picked up the win in Game-1 of the Division Series against the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium by a lopsided score of 6-0, whereas Buehler started Game-3 of the series against the Braves at Sun Trust Park in Atlanta and received a no-decision in the eventual 6-5 Dodgers loss, their only loss of the best-of-five series.

Unlike Game-3 of the NLDS, in which Buehler gave up a second-inning grand slam home run to Braves left fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. at Sun Trust Park in Atlanta, Roberts has opted to move his young right-hander to Game-3 of the NLCS, which will take place at Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon.
(Video capture courtesy of FS1)

“The thought process is Hyun-Jin pitched Game 1 in the DS, and not to give him the two extra days to not pitch Game 2 and then to pitch Game 3,” Roberts said. “So I think that to keep him as current as possible, to keep him going – he’s pitching really well – and then also just to give Walker just a couple extra days on the front end to get him ready.

“So we just felt that Clayton starting Game 1, Hyun-Jin going Game 2, and then Walker, gives each of these guys the best chance to perform at their best,” Roberts added.

As for Brewers manager (and former Dodger) Craig Counsell, his decision to also throw back-to-back lefties makes a bit more sense. There is zero doubt that the Brewers skipper wants to keep the Dodgers powerful (and extremely dangerous) left-handed bats on the bench for as long as possible, especially at hitter-friendly Miller Park.

“So with Gio, we just … we like the matchup,” Counsell said. “We like the matchup against their lineup. And you know, we talked about… Look, it’s no secret that we’re going to use our pitching a little differently than traditionally, than the traditionalists would like. And so for us, the first matchup that we liked was Gio on the mound. We’re asking Gio to go out there and get a bunch of outs. How many, you know, we’ll just see how it goes.”

Things become even less clear (if that’s possible) when it comes to projected Game-3 starter Jhoulys Chacin.

“Yeah, I mean, look, I will tell you Jhoulys is available in Game 1,” Counsell told reporters on Thursday. “At this point, I think the Game 3 starter is penciled in. It’s likely to be Jhoulys, but he’s also… he’s available to pitch [on Friday in Game-1], for sure.”

How does Roberts interpret what certainly sounds like an attempt by his counterpart to confuse the issue?

“I know that those guys have a process in place on how they want to approach the series,” Roberts explained. “So we were kind of open to whatever direction they were going to go as far as starting pitching. As far as our lineup, it’ll be somewhat similar to [Atlanta Braves left-hander Sean] Newcomb. I might tweak a thing or two, just because you also have to combat and prepare against those guys deploying their guys in the pen.”

It’s certainly no secret that the “pen” of which Roberts speaks is a very good one. In fact, many had speculated that Counsell might even opt to go with a new and trendy “opener” – i.e., a reliever being used to begin a game rather than a traditional “starter”.

“Largely, we’re trying to get away from what the word starter and reliever means, and that’s how we’re going to get through the postseason, I think,” Counsell told reporters prior to the beginning of the NLDS against the Colorado Rockies. “Every one of the guys we’re adding is going to pitch significant innings in the series, and that’s what … I think that’s what allows us to consider different ways to get to 27 outs.”

Whether as openers or relievers, 54.8% of the innings pitched by the Brewers during the just-concluded NLDS sweep of the Rockies were thrown by relievers, including six innings in Game 1 by “opener” Brandon Woodruff in what was essentially a bullpen game. The 25-year-old hard-throwing right-hander used exclusively out of the bullpen during the 2018 regular season ended up pitching three scoreless innings for Counsell’s team.

Such will not be the case for Dave Roberts’ team. Instead, he will employed a traditional starting rotation of Kershaw, Ryu, Buehler, and (presumably) Rich Hill.

All of this said and something to keep in mind (as Roberts and his team undoubtedly have and will) is that Brewers relievers led the National League in strikeout ratio and ranked second in ERA … so there’s that.

Stay tuned…