After playing 13 innings in a game that went late into Tuesday evening, the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers were back at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday afternoon for a pivotal Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
The pitching matchup had Wade Miley starting on short rest, and Clayton Kershaw taking the mound for the Dodgers on his regular turn. However, only Kershaw made it through the first inning.
Miley walked Cody Bellinger to lead off the bottom of the first and was promptly removed. He threw all of five pitches.
Miley was relieved by Brandon Woodruff, who threw 27 pitches over two scoreless innings out of the bullpen and hit a home run off Kershaw in Game 1. While Brewers manager Craig Counsell has aggressively deployed his bullpen, the decision appeared extreme.
That is until taking into account and understanding that Miley essentially treated it as his side session and he is now slated to start Game 6 on Friday. Perhaps sensing something was amiss, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t trot out his usual platoon lineup.
Instead, Bellinger hit leadoff and Max Muncy started at second base. Typically, Bellinger and Muncy would not be in the lineup with the Dodgers facing a southpaw.
“Just to shake things up,” Roberts said of his lineup for Game 5. “I like Cody’s at-bats against Miley. I think that the quality of contact and I like him there. Going forward, how we could combat what they do, it made sense to us.”
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