Twenty-one of the 35 runs in the series have been scored in the opening frame. It concludes on Saturday night with the winner advancing to face the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.
Working as a starting pitcher in the National League Division Series between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers has been one tough job.
Twenty-one of the 35 runs in the series have been scored in the first inning. The series concludes on Saturday night (5 p.m. PT, TBS) with a winner-take-all Game 5 to determine which of these NL Central rivals will face the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.
“I think it’s way more common than you think, for pitchers to be vulnerable in the first inning,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Friday. “Everybody’s geeked up. The atmosphere is way different. And I think that’s something that is noted.”
So perhaps it’s no surprise that neither Murphy nor Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced their Game 5 starting pitchers a day in advance.
The Cubs have the option of turning to Game 2 loser Shota Imanaga on four days of rest, but he posted a 6.51 ERA in September and has allowed six runs over 6⅔ innings in two appearances this postseason.
“With the exception of (Game 4 starter) Matt Boyd, everyone’s going to be available,” Counsell said. “And so it’s a cliché here, but we have 11 pitchers to figure out how to get 27 outs. That’s how we’re treating it.”
Milwaukee could use a similar approach to its Game 2 strategy, when seven different pitchers contributed to a 7-3 victory.
