NLCS Game 3: Open Game Thread

The NLCS shifts to LA for the next three games, which means at the bare minimum the Brewers have to win one game in order to bring the series back to Miller Park. That’s starting to feel like a tall order, as the Brewers bullpen has wilted under the pressure in the later innings. The Dodgers’ starting pitching hasn’t looked unassailable, so the key is for the Brewers to score early and often and hand their bullpen as big of a lead as possible. Walker Buehler has had a rough entree to the postseason, pitching 5.1 innings total in two starts and, despite collecting eight strikeouts, surrendering five earned runs in that time, so there’s an opportunity here if the Brewers remembered to pack their offensive energy across the country.

Note: in the time it took me to type this intro, Buehler walked Christian Yelich and surrendered an RBI double to Ryan Braun on a hanging slider. He’s also collected two strikeouts and currently has Jesus Aguilar in an 0-2 count, so it seems like Buehler’s pattern of “lots of strikeouts, damaged by walks” is holding up.

The rest of the lineups:

The game is on now, because why have games start at the same time, ever, and it’s on FS1. Also, Aguilar wound up striking out, so Buehler struck out the side but surrendered a run. The Brew Crew will need to offer Chacin more support than that to keep pace with LA’s high-flying offense.

Also, PSA: if you go to a bar to watch and they have MNF on instead of the NLCS, with the zombie Packers against the sad-sack 49ers, tell them I told them that’s a bad choice and to put the fun, competitive game on the big TV.