The Brewers bullpen is one for the ages

At the start of the World Series, I noted that the Brewers had reached the Fall Classic for the first time in 44 years, despite not having much length from their starting pitchers. During the National League Championship Series, Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser and company averaged four innings per inning just below average, an average that didn’t seem so low until The Miz delivered 5 2/3 innings in Wednesday night’s Series clincher. Along with the right hitting of Jackson Chourio, William Contreras, and Cooper Pratt, a major key to Milwaukee’s dominant run has been its bullpen. Even in the team’s Game 4 loss, Aaron Ashby set a record, extending his scoreless innings streak to 18, and as a group, the Brewers’ relievers delivered one of the best combined performances in football history.

I dug into Ashby’s performance last week, noting the way his super-high delivery and high speed combined unfamiliar angles and elite vertical movement for his repertoire, giving both lefties and righties fits. The 28-year-old was even more dominant in his three World Series appearances:

That’s a 33.3% strikeout rate and a 5.0% walk rate overall, and a 500.0% strikeout rate (with no walks) against the Rays. Ashby threw 1 2/3 innings in Game 1, coming on in relief of Abner Uribe with one out in the seventh and striking out all five batters he faced. He added another 1 2/3 innings in Game 2, this time with one out in the eighth in relief of Uribe. With a leadoff double by Jonny DeLuca to start the ninth (the only baserunner he allowed all series), he closed out the game, becoming the 10th pitcher with at least three saves longer than three in a single Wild Card era of the postseason — or 15th, depending on how many times you want to count Mariano Rivera.