Dodgers: The Brewers would not be an “easy” matchup for LA

An underrated pitching staff

The Dodgers finished September with a 3.10 ERA overall.  The only team better was the Milwaukee Brewers who posted an ERA of 3.01 in September with a whopping 272 strikeouts in 245 innings.  While their overall pitching stats do not look overly impressive, they are a team that has pitched much better lately, and are hot at the right time.

They have Josh Hader who was more vulnerable this season blowing seven saves, but he still held opposing batters to a .155 average and is capable of pitching the last two to three innings of a game.  The Brewers also added Drew Pomeranz who despite the ugly 2-10 record has been much better as a reliever posting an ERA of 1.88 in 28 2/3 innings.  He has also held the opposition to a .165 average as a reliever.

The Brewers’ rotation lacks inning eaters as Zach Davies led the rotation with 159 2/3 innings but the still have some intriguing arms.  Brandon Woodruff who will start the wild card game, is a hard throwing right-hander that the Dodgers saw in last year’s NLCS.  He posted an ERA of 2.19 in four games of the NLCS last year and even homered off of Clayton Kershaw.  Woodruff posted an ERA of 3.62 this season but his FIP was just 3.01.

Just as Woodruff burst onto the scene last postseason, Adrian Houser could have a similar showing this postseason.  Houser throws a sinker in the mid 90’s and has averaged 9.4 K/9IP this season.  The only Dodgers that have faced Houser are Freese and Gyorko who got one at-bat each against him.