Call the Hardy Boys. Clear Nancy Drew’s schedule. And while you’re at it, get a hall pass for Encyclopedia Brown.
The Milwaukee Brewers have a job for them. It’s the Case of the Missing Postseason Pitching.
Do you realize the Brewers have played seven postseason games, and they’ve got exactly one pitcher who’s delivered a quality start?
Yep. Somehow they’ve won their first postseason series in 29 years. Somehow they split the first two games of the National League Championship Series. And they’ve done it all despite serving up more runs than ptomaine poisoning.
It’s in direct contrast to how the Brewers got to these playoffs in the first place. In the regular season, the biggest strength of this team was starting pitching. More specifically, the depth of talent in that rotation. Yovani Gallardo, Shaun Marcum, Zack Greinke and Randy Wolf all had ERAs of 3.83 or better. The fifth, Chris Narveson, checked in at 4.45, which is plenty good from the last starter in line.
But in the playoffs, it’s been a far different story.
So far, Gallardo is the lone Brewer to hold an opponent to anything less than four runs in a postseason start. He’s done so twice, limiting Arizona to single runs in Games 1 and 5 of the N.L. Divisional Series. Everyone else has simply been part of the mystery.
Greinke? Well, he’s got two wins, but they’ve come at the cost of an 8.18 ERA. Marcum? Two starts, 12 earned runs. Wolf? Blackjack. His seven-run, three-inning start translates to an ERA of 21.00.
Put another way, in Gallardo games, the Brewers have beaten opponents by a combined score of 7-3. In every other pitcher’s five starts, Milwaukee has taken a 40-28 bath.
Who stole their pitching mojo and where are they hiding it? That’s where the kid detectives come in.
How do the Brewers survive it all to finish their World Series quest? That’s where Gallardo comes in.
He starts Game 3 in St. Louis on Wednesday against Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. Given the current state of the Brewers rotation, it’s hard to see how they’d overcome losing a Gallardo start.
It will, quite simply, be the biggest start of Gallardo’s life. Just like Game 1 of the NLDS. Just like Game 5 of the NLDS. So frankly, he should be used to this stuff by now.
Can he meet the moment again? The Brewers absolutely need him to do so.
Maybe by then, Encyclopedia and friends will have capped the confounding caper.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I tweet as howiemag. And listen to me chat sports with Mitch Teich on WUWM’s “Lake Effect.”
