Pat Murphy reverses course on Brewers' NLCS Game 3 pitching plans

There is seemingly just one certainty when it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers' postseason pitching plans in 2025: Aaron Ashby will throw.

Outside of the lefty Ashby, who will once again serve as the Brewers’ opener in Game 3 of the NLCS, the sequence of pitchers that Pat Murphy will roll out this evening in Los Angeles appears to still be up in the air. Ashby, who is opening for the third time this postseason and making his seventh appearance in the eight playoff games that Milwaukee will have played by the end of the night, is unlikely to cover more than an inning, at which point his bionic arm will surely need to recharge.

The plan, heading into today, was that veteran southpaw José Quintana would follow Ashby in a bulk role, hoping to give the Brewers a good chance at winning their first game of the NLCS. Quintana, who has thrown just 49 pitches all postseason, all of which came during a three-inning outing against the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of the NLDS, is more than rested and ready to let his postseason experience go to work. Not only did Quintana enter the 2025 playoffs with the most experience of any pitcher on the Brewers' roster, but he performed well in his one appearance, allowing zero runs on just two hits to what was a surging Cubs' offense at the time.

However, just moments ago, Murphy revealed to the media that his veteran left-hander will likely have to wait one more day before squaring off against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as the team's pitching plans have shifted away from Quintana in favor of Milwaukee's flamethrowing rookie. As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Curt Hogg on the social media platform X, Jacob Misiorowski is now expected to follow Ashby in Game 3 tonight.

Uncertainty or gamesmanship? Pat Murphy switches Game 3 pitching plan at last second

There's always a level of gamesmanship when postseason baseball rolls around, especially for a team like the Brewers who can't blindly pick a starting pitcher out of a hat and throw him into an NLCS game like Dave Roberts and the Dodgers have the luxury of doing. Murphy, as was the case with his predecessor Craig Counsell, often waits until the last possible moment to reveal his pitching plan, and will occasionally reverse course just before or even during the game.

The first such instance was Game 2 of the NLDS, when everyone expected Quinn Priester to play a major role in the Brewers' pitching plans. Murphy even had Priester warm up alongside his opener, Ashby, to throw the Cubs off the scent. However, when the game began, it was Misiorowski who followed Ashby in a long-relief role, delivering the first of his two memorable outings in the NLDS.

There's no rule that says you must reveal who your second pitcher in a game will be. Think about it, during the regular season, does a manager ever say, "this reliever is going to pitch the seventh inning tonight" before the game starts? No, because things happen in the game that change the equation. The same is true when using an opener in the postseason. Ashby's first inning performance tonight could change Murphy's pitching strategy before the game reaches the second inning.

Sure, the fact that Murphy is changing course before the game, saying Quintana was in line to follow Ashby before changing his plan and now saying it will most likely be Misiorowski is different than the situation presented above, but the fact remains: it's not Pat Murphy's responsibility to reveal to the other team who will be the second one out of the gates this evening. And if it's not required, why would Murph give the Dodgers the advantage of being able to switch around their lineup to match up better with the Brewers’ bulk pitcher of the game?

Call it gamesmanship or deception or just flat-out genuine uncertainty about who he wants to throw against the Dodgers in Game 3 tonight, but there's strategy to the way that Murphy has revealed, or rather not revealed, who will be covering a majority of his team's outs tonight.