The Milwaukee Brewers believe they have what it takes to squash the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series three-peat bid when they take on the West Coast powerhouse in the National League Championship Series for a second straight year.
By some measures, it’s a David versus Goliath match-up of the Brewers, with their $154 million payroll, against the Dodgers’ cast of superstars, who earn $432 million.
Advertisement
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts rejects that characterization.
“Absolutely not,” Roberts said Friday.
“They have the best record in baseball if I remember rightly,” Roberts said of the 103-win Brewers. “They have that for a reason. They’ve got home field advantage. We’ve got to be ready to play our best baseball.
“They are certainly not afraid of us.”
The Dodgers unceremoniously swept the Brewers in four games in the NLCS last year.
But after posting the most wins in Major League Baseball for a second straight year, the Brewers are confident they can go the distance this time around.
Advertisement
“We’re going to be more ready than we were last time, I believe,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Milwaukee beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 in their best-of-five National League division series.
The Brewers snapped a 12-game post-season road losing streak with their clinching victory in San Diego on Wednesday — further evidence, Murphy said, that the team has evolved from being a regular-season juggernaut that can’t contend in the playoffs.
“A lot of people have said we’re not built for the post-season because we’ve done so well in the regular season (without) many stars,” Murphy said.
“I think we’re proving that, no, we still can win in the post-season because good baseball is good baseball.”
Advertisement
Roberts concurred, saying the fact that the Brewers don’t rely on a lineup of power hitters doesn’t make them less dangerous.
“They pitch, they defend, they run the bases well,” Roberts said. “They don’t strike out much. They put the ball in play … they play baseball … that’s a tough brand of baseball to prepare for.”
The Brewers will host the 100-win Dodgers in game one on Sunday, with Milwaukee’s flame-throwing Jacob Misiorowski set to take the mound against two-time reigning Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal.
Misiorowski, the 24-year-old whose four-seam fastball topped out at 104.8 mph and averaged 101.2 mph in the NLDS, finished the regular season with an MLB best earned-run-average of 1.80 and 252 strikeouts.
Advertisement
He is part of a talented Brewers pitching staff that held the Padres to 10 runs in their series.
– ‘Championship pedigree’ –
The Dodgers’ potent lineup is an even more formidable proposition.
Superstar Shohei Ohtani, managing nagging injuries, has struggled at the plate.
But the Los Angeles lineup still features plenty of power with the likes of Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Kyle Tucker.
The pitching rotation includes Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto — last year’s World Series MVP — and two-time Cy Young Award-winner Blake Snell.
Brewers captain Christian Yelich said Milwaukee was eager for the challenge.
Advertisement
“They’re a great team with great players, and they’ve got a championship pedigree,” Yelich said shortly after Milwaukee polished off the Padres.
“But you always want to play the best, and if you want to get where you need to go, that’s what you’ve got to do.”
bb/sst
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
