Milwaukee Brewers: It’s our time to shine

The Milwaukee Brewers are headed back to the National League Championship Series. They now are just one step away from their ultimate goal, but one foe stands in their way. The Los Angeles Dodgers will come to town starting Friday.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been the definition of resilient in 2018. They made splashes in January when they acquired the future MVP Christian Yelich, and the man who only wants to be shown love, Lorenzo Cain. These key moves went along with many under the radar acquisitions such as Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley.

Nobody had this team going as far as they have come during this dream of a season. The Brewers have faced adversity all season long and have shown up when it counts. Now they will need to take care of business against one of the most expensive teams in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

So what are Milwaukee’s chances?

Contrary to what you hear in the media, the Milwaukee Brewers match up very well with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Brewers starting pitching is obviously not on the same level, but Milwaukee’s starters held the Colorado Rockies explosive offense to just two runs in three games.

Brewers pitching outdid themselves when the spotlight was on them, and their performances showed signs that they have what it takes to do it again in this series.

On the other hand, Los Angeles is no slouch when it comes to having impressive pitching. A rotation led by one of the greatest pitchers in the last ten years in Clayton Kershaw and a breakout star in Walker Buehler is not a match up the Brewers should take lightly. It will be difficult to score more than a couple runs against those electric arms.

However, there is one strength that Milwaukee possesses that no one in the entire playoffs can even come close to. That, of course, is the bullpen. Headlined by Josh Hader, Corey Knebel, and Jeremy Jeffress, the Brewers bullpen has been been unhittable in the postseason. Aside from a fluke outing by Jeffress, they have shown no signs of slowing down all thanks to managed Craig Counsell‘s bullpen management skills.

On top of those three, the Milwaukee Brewers also have Joakim Soria who has been solid thus far in October and future stars Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes. Gio Gonzalez and Junior Guerra are also long relief options if needed.

How do the bats match up?

The Milwaukee Brewers have seen a little bit of a dip in runs scored during their playoff run thus far. They have only managed to score a total of 13 runs in three games against Colorado. That doesn’t seem that bad, but the Dodgers possess a fierce lineup. In their series against Atlanta, the Dodgers mustered up a total of 20 runs in four games.

Milwaukee’s lineup will need to wake up if they want to give the Dodgers a run for their money. However, we did see signs of an offensive resurgence in the final game of the Colorado series when the Brewers tallied six runs to finish off the sweep.

Headlined by Yelich and Cain, the Milwaukee Brewers have an incredibly deep line up. Mike Moustakas and Travis Shaw are two lefty bats that possess a ton of pop. Erik Kratz has been an unsung hero no one expected and Jesus Aguilar is showing signs that his bat will wake up in this series.

The Dodgers have a solid linep consisting of Justin Turner, Manny Machado and a few young studs in Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger. However, each has shown weakness vs left-handed pitching and the Milwaukee Brewers have a surplus of southpaws ready to go.

Who has the edge?

That is a toss-up, but since the Brewers have home field advantage and a way more dominant bullpen, they have a slight edge in this series.

The Dodgers will need to do everything in their power to not fall behind early in any games, or there is a great chance they will not like the end results. As long as Milwaukee executes their strengths, we will see our beloved team in the 2018 Fall Classic!