The Milwaukee Brewers will begin their National League Divisional Series against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday. When they do, they won't employ a conventional look.
Rather, the Brewers will follow in the footsteps of the Oakland Athletics by running a bullpen game in the series opener, per manager Craig Counsell:
Brewers are going to bullpen Game 1 of the NLDS. They haven’t picked an initial out-getter yet, Craig Counsell said.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) October 3, 2018
We had discussed this option as a possibility for the Brewers heading into the Wild Card Game. It makes a certain sense. The Brewers don't have an ace, but do have a deep and high-powered reliefs corps. Piecing together four or five innings from their middle-relief unit before turning things over to Corey Knebel, Josh Hader, and Jeremy Jeffress might well be their best play.
At minimum, toggling through relievers does give the Brewers the flexibility to pinch-hit whenever the pitcher's spot is due up. That could prove handy, depending on the situation. It's unclear who the Brewers will deem their "opener," or how they'll sequence their relievers.
Meanwhile, Counsell announced that Jhoulys Chacin will start Game 2 on short rest. Chacin pitched Monday's tiebreaker game. In other words, Milwaukee's bullpen could be very busy the next two days -- all by design.
