Milwaukee Brewers: Roadmap to stealing two games in Wild Card

Game One

Brent Suter is not just the hero all Milwaukee Brewers’ fans want; he’s the hero we need. The Raptor is ready to take all of the rehab time, all of his impressions, and all of his strength to muster up some 88-mile-per-hour fastballs and shut down this Dodgers’ lineup for one time through the order. Anything much more than one time through their lineup is probably asking for trouble.

In his start in the first leg of the double-header on Friday, he pitched four stellar innings and faced 14 batters. That’s once and a half through the order, and that was against a Cardinals lineup that is inferior to the Dodgers. It’ll definitely be a short leash day for Suter, but him giving the Brewers three innings would be huge.

Everyone knows that Milwaukee couldn’t hit a basketball in the first two innings this season, so the hope is that Suter works so quickly that those first few innings fly by, and we’re into the middle part of the game at 0-0 before anyone can blink. Suter is one of the greatest playoff pitchers of all time with an ERA of 0.00. Of course, that was in just one inning of the Wild Card game last season, but that was against the eventual World Series champs. Even if he gave up a run in those three innings, that would keep it close and be a giant success.

So now it’s hopefully tied, or 1-0 Dodgers in the fourth inning, and the Brewers have to find 18 more outs and a few runs. Depending on where the Dodgers are in their order, this is either time for Eric Yardley or Alex Claudio. Both are sidearm pitchers but from opposite sides. If lefties are up for the Dodgers, it’s Claudio. If it’s right-handed hitters, you go with Yardley. This combination is what will hopefully get them through the fourth and fifth.

These innings are where the Brewers need to find a run or two, so the pressure isn’t on in the late innings. Something like an Avisail Garcia double and then a clutch single from Ryan Braun or and Arcia home run would be great ways to get on the board and tie it up.

The sixth inning is where things get really interesting, and decisions have to be made. The option is there to try and pitch Devin Williams and Josh Hader for two innings each and close it out, but then they’re both likely not available for game two. Really, they need to get through the sixth, so one of them only has to throw one inning, and they’re available to close out game two if needed.

This is a big spot, and it takes a veteran, so the Brewers will go with 32-year-old Jedd Gyorko, who, similar to Suter, has a 0.00 ERA this season in one dynamite inning. More realistically, this will be where they go to Adrian Houser. He’s struggled as a starter, but we all saw how much of a firecracker he was out of the bullpen in 2019, and this will be his time to shine. If he’s on, maybe they can even stretch him out for two or three innings to take the pressure off the big guys.

The last two or three innings are all up to the Hader-Williams combo. Houser pitching two innings and being able to let them each just pitch one would be absolutely monstrous. Then, they each pitch their inning and hope the hitting can come through. Or they start Eric Lauer, who has a career ERA of 2.11 against the Dodgers and he pitches a perfect game, who knows.

A Ryan Braun clutch moment just seems like it has to be in the cards this year. Maybe Yelich gets back to MVP form and hits one in the seats. Who knows, maybe Narvaez or Nottingham will connect on one of the huge hacks they both take and knock one out. If all this falls apart, there’s always game two with the Milwaukee Brewers’ ace, Brandon Woodruff, on the mound.