What’s a little gamesmanship between old friends?
In 2018, then-Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell famously pulled a bait-and-switch in the National League Championship Series, removing starter Wade Miley after one batter in Game 5 against the Dodgers and turning to Brandon Woodruff, a gambit designed to convince Los Angeles to put its right-handers in the lineup.
The results were mixed; Miley walked his one man (Cody Bellinger), though Woodruff escaped the inning unscathed before Los Angeles ultimately staged a 5-2 win, tagging Woodruff for three runs in 5 ⅓ innings. By 2020, the league had implemented a three-batter minimum rule to mitigate the level of trickery teams could employ.
On Oct. 6, the Brewers’ 2018 bench coach still had an ace up his sleeve when his team faced Counsell and the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
“We didn’t have any plans on throwing (Quinn) Priester,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after the game. “There was no plans. He has his throwing program that he does, and doing his throwing program, and yeah …”
In fairness, Murphy had never proclaimed that Priester would pitch in Game 2, in fact leaving the door open that he would not. But the idea made sense. With the decision to start left-hander Aaron Ashby as a clear “opener,” Priester was the natural fit as someone who had separated himself as Milwaukee’s clear No. 2 starting pitcher option by season’s end. Throw in the fact that the club had used an opener for Priester on four occasions this year, and it stood to reason that he’d be the first out of the pen once Ashby was done facing the Cubs’ tough trio of left-handed bats: Michael Busch, Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
When Priester warmed up before the game and joined the other relievers in the bullpen, it made even more sense.
“Did they say already that it was a total deke?” Priester asked in a conversation with Adam McCalvy of MLB.com after the game. “Or did you just know, because it’s a total Brewers thing to do. I didn’t care. I thought, ‘If this is going to help us one percent, or help us on one at-bat or one pitch, why not?’
“I wasn’t pitching today, so if that’s one way I can help us win, screw it. I’ll do whatever.”
There is no cloak and dagger for Game 3. Priester, who actually worked through his more formal bullpen after Game 2, starting post-11 p.m., was quickly announced by Murphy as the starter for the showdown at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.
Winning with a bullpen game in Game 2 gives the Brewers a comfortable layout going forward, with starters Priester and José Quintana available for Games 3 and 4, and ace Freddy Peralta in Game 5 if the series gets that far.
But winning with just bullpen arms required a few things to go right, and they did. Milwaukee’s relievers retired the final 15 Cubs they saw, for one thing.
It also required a strong showing from rookie Jacob Misiorowski, who entered a tie game, dazzled with his velocity and wound up working three scoreless innings for the win in his playoff debut.
“Coming in from the bullpen was awesome,” Misiorowski said. “Just hearing the roar when I stepped out was really cool. I mean, it’s amazing just how they’ve come to us, and it’s meant a lot.”
It was already a leap of faith to put the flamethrowing rookie on the postseason roster; since his return from injury on Aug. 15, Misiorowski had appeared in 34 innings and had allowed multiple runners to reach in 16 of those innings, leading to a 6.06 ERA in that stretch. Only 11 innings had ended in 1-2-3 fashion, and four of those came in the context of a Pirates game after Misiorowski had been staked to an 8-run lead.
Though Misiorowski allowed a batter to reach in all three of his innings against the Cubs, including two via walk, he still kept Chicago off the scoreboard.
“We were thinking somewhere between 30 and 50 pitches (for Misiorowski) and we were thinking that he’d let us know he was gassed,” Murphy said. “He was very emotional, and you guys know what he’s been through, but he responded. I think that’s a really good sign.
“He was one of the keys to the game, and there was a lot of them. This game was in a lot of different parts, but Miz stepped up. You guys get all enthralled with (miles per hour). I’m enthralled that he wasn’t giving up free bases, kept his composure with runners and that type of thing.”
Chad Patrick followed with a sensational inning of relief, leaving the traditional “A” bullpen of Jared Koenig, Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe to close the game down. Uribe struck out all three men he faced to end it in the ninth.
The Cubs countered Milwaukee’s decision to start Ashby by putting right-handed hitting veteran Justin Turner atop the lineup, playing first base where lefty swinging Michael Busch would normally fit. Ashby struggled, inducing a flyout from Turner but then permitting the next three to reach base, including Seiya Suzuki with a three-run homer to spot the Cubs a 3-0 lead.
But when the Brewers struck back for three runs in their half of the first, it allowed the Brewers a little more leash with Ashby, who returned for the second inning and faced Turner again; this time, Turner singled.
Busch finally checked into the game in the fourth to face Misiorowski and flied out, the first of two empty plate appearances for the man who homered leading off Game 1 two nights earlier. By then, the Brewers had a 4-3 lead that became 7-3 on Jackson Chourio’s homer in the bottom of the fourth.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers never intended to use Quinn Priester in Game 2, win with bullpen game
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
