Any team can beat any team on any given day, regardless of how many players are Cooperstown-bound in the opponent’s lineup.
The Milwaukee Brewers certainly proved that point, as they swept the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers to advance to their first World Series in 44 years. The baseball world widely expected the Dodgers, with their rotation chock-full of aces and lineup full of future Hall of Famers, to roll to their third straight World Series title. The Brewers proved them wrong.
“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers. And the gamers won this week,” Murphy said after the Brewers’ win.
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The Brewers’ payroll pales in comparison to the Dodgers’. According to Spotrac, Los Angeles’ $339 million payroll ranks second in baseball, more than twice the Brewers’ $146 million payroll, which ranks 19th in the sport.
“We weren’t coming in to play patty-cake,” Murphy said. “We were hungry, and as long as it’s an even playing field, we’re going to come in and give it our best shot to win. That’s exactly what we did.”
The Dodgers swept the Brewers in the NLCS last season, which is why so many thought a similar outcome might be on the horizon this year. Not Milwaukee.
“I think the Dodgers figured out that we came in here with a little different attitude this year,” Murphy said.
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Unlike the Dodgers, the Brewers may not have any surefire Hall of Famers in their rotation or lineup, but they don’t quit.
NLCS MVP Jake Bauers nearly retired from baseball two seasons ago and only kept playing because his wife was expecting a child and needed healthcare benefits. The 31-year-old has since emerged as a linchpin in the Brewers’ lineup, working series-changing at-bats against All-Star pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell.
The Brewers fell behind 4-0 in the second inning after Shohei Ohtani’s three-run blast, but the team never wavered.
“There was never a doubt in that dugout what was going to happen tonight. We knew we were going to win that game,” Bauers said.
Aaron Ashby, who did his best Houdini impression by stranding multiple Dodgers baserunners in scoring position, recorded the three-inning save in the clinching win.
“Playing with that chip on our shoulder,” Ashby said. “You don’t ever know what to expect going into a series like that last year (against the Dodgers). You don’t know how bad it can be, and then it was as bad as it was. And we came out and we survived, and we came back this year, and those guys played their tails off.”
The Brewers hope the swagger that their “gamers” carry can translate into four more wins. They will play either the Cleveland Guardians or Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series. The Guardians lead the Rays 2-1 in the ALCS, with Game 4 scheduled for Friday.