- Brewers had MLB’s best record and now face reigning World Series champions in NLCS.
- “How many of our position players would be on the Dodgers’ team?’ manager Pat Murphy wondered.
- Dodgers aren’t underestimating the Brewers after Milwaukee won all six regular season meetings.
MILWAUKEE — The congratulatory text message arrived late Saturday night on Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy’s cell phone.
It was one of about 600 messages that Murphy received in the aftermath of knocking off the Chicago Cubs to clinch his club’s first berth in the National League Championship Series since 2018.
The sender was Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, whose team is in the NLCS virtually every year, reaching the postseason 13 consecutive years with 12 division titles, four NL pennants and two World Series championships.
“Congrats, look forward to seeing you,’ Murphy told USA TODAY Sports, reading Friedman’s text from his phone. “Please see if you can be a little more hospitable than you were with us this season. Thanks for your consideration.’
The Brewers, in fact, did beat the Dodgers all six times they played this season en route to a major-league leading 97 victories, but that’s not stopping the Brewers from claiming the underdog role in this NLCS beginning Oct. 13 at American Family Field.
Let’s see, they play in baseball’s smallest market. Their player payroll of about $130 million is three times smaller than the Dodgers’ $400 million luxury tax payroll. They have a team filled with faces only their mothers can recognize while the Dodgers are splashed on billboards everywhere from New York to Tokyo to Mexico City. The Dodgers lineup is a collection of ‘who’s who’ in baseball. The Brewers lineup is filled with a collection of “who are you?’
The Dodgers are starting two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell in Game 1, have three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw in the bullpen, and three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani in another start.
The Brewers don’t even know who’ll they even be starting in Game 1.
“How many of our position players would be on the Dodgers’ team?’ Murphy said. “You can’t really project that many of them would.’
David, meet Goliath.
“We’re not overconfident, that’s for sure,’ Murphy said. “The Dodgers are a powerhouse … You don’t see many commercials in the United States, Canada, Japan, anywhere across the world [that] you don’t have Dodgers in it because they have the star power.’
Murphy was just getting started with praise.
“Freddie Freeman is like my favorite person, player in the game,’ Murphy said. “He’s ruined Brewers history many times, but I still love him. I think he’s a terrific player and an even more terrific person.
“Ohtani, you know, I don’t know how many years he’s played. but he’s one of the all-time greats. … The guy is amazing. I’ve never seen a baseball player with that much ability.
“And [Tyler] Glasnow is really good. And [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto is really good. The guy at the end, who is the guy at the end throwing 100 with a split?’
That would be 23-year-old rookie Roki Sasaki.
“That shouldn’t be fair,’ Murphy said. “We’re going to try to petition the league and see if we can get him suspended for something. Isn’t there something we can get him on to get him out?’
And, please don’t get Murphy started on Mookie Betts, the MVP right fielder who is now playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop.
“Mookie Betts, what he’s doing, transitioning back to the infield and playing shortstop on America’s team, like, are you kidding me?,’ Murphy said. “And doing it so well. I mean, his performance this year is by far the most underrated. If you’re watching baseball and value to a team, that dude is some kind of special. It would be like Steph Curry playing forward, you know what I mean? He could do it because superstars can do that. Mookie is doing something in our game that’s unprecedented, I love it.’
Murphy still wasn’t done.
“I respect the whole team. Teoscar [Hernandez], one of the great dudes in the game. And he’s just performing in the clutch. They’ve got great ones. The [Miguel] Rojas kid has killed us. If he hits against us, he gets a hit. He’s been unbelievable.
“So, I respect the heck out of them. I really do.’
No wonder Murphy responded to Friedman’s text saying the only way to make this a fair competition would be to have Betts, Freeman, and Hernandez playing with gloves on their opposite hands.
“We’re just a bunch of average Joes,’ said Murphy. “Yelly [All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich] calls it the collection of misfit toys. Everybody has been DFA’d or moved around or been through really tough stretches.’
The Dodgers listen to it all and are thoroughly amused, scoffing at the idea that this is a mismatch.
“I’m not falling for the ‘Average Joes,’’ Snell said. “They’re not. They have the best record in the NL. They’re a really good team.’
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who used to be on Murphy’s coaching staff in San Diego, made sure that his players aren’t buying it.
“They’re just gritty, they’re tough,’ Roberts said, “and they take on Murph’s personality. They’ve got some guys that can slug. They’ve got some athleticism. They really defend well. They can pitch well. They’ve got complete buy-in, and so they’re hungry. Those things are components that are scary.
“So, anything Murph speaks to, in the Lou Holtz vein, we’re not buying, because that’s a very good ballclub.’
And as Cubs manager Craig Counsell kept saying over and over, the guys can pitch.
The Brewers certainly believe in themselves, and after getting past the Cubs in their emotional five-game series, it’s as if they’re playing with house money. The pressure is off. They finally won their first postseason series in seven years. They beat their hated rivals when it mattered.
How can there be pressure when no in the world – outside their own clubhouse – expects them to beat the mighty Dodgers?
“It doesn’t get any bigger than big market vs. small market than Brewers and Dodgers,’ Yelich said. “We’re up against it. We know it. We love being in that situation. It’s fitting for us that it’s going to come down to that series against that team, all the star power, the defending champs, and we got the average Joes coming in there.
“We’re going to do what we’ve done all year. We’re going to compete our (butts) off and see what happens.’
No one in their right mind believed the Brewers could win more games during the regular season than the Dodgers.
And when the Brewers lost back-to-back games at Wrigley Field, few thought they’d be the ones playing the Dodgers now for the right to be in the World Series.
“When you go against the Dodgers and that payroll,’ Brewers veteran starter Brandon Woodruff said, “we’re the underdogs, man. We’ve been like that all season. We got nothing to lose, which is a freeing thing for our team. I know we played well against them during the regular season, but this is a different time, so we’ll see how we stack up.’
But not everyone is buying that narrative.
The Brewers won more games. They went 6-0 against the Dodgers. And they have home-field advantage.
“Watch out,’ Woodruff said. “But we’re still the underdogs every time, man. There’s no getting around it. Anytime you go up against the Dodgers, you’re the underdog.
“But we proved this year we can play with them, so we’ll see what happens.’
Hey, Buster Douglas once knocked out Mike Tyson.
USA’s “Miracle on Ice’ hockey team beat the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics.
Joe Namath and the New York Jets shocked the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
So, why not the Brewers?
“The Dodgers are fantastic,’ Murphy said. “They’re probably better at almost every position than us. But you know, it doesn’t come down to that. It’s who plays the hardest.
“They’re hungry.
“I don’t underestimate them.’
In return, neither do the Dodgers.
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