MILWAUKEE -- The final outs of Game 2 of the World Series belonged to Brewers lefty Aaron Ashby, not closer Trevor Megill. Not that labels matter much with this team. Manager Pat Murphy pieces things together the way it works best for his ballclub instead of managing to stats.
Megill, for example, had 30 saves in the regular season, but Chad Patrick and Abner Uribe had six apiece. Ashby had four.
Ashby gets so many important outs that, paired with the Brewers' relentless comebacks, he also recorded 13 regular-season wins. How about that? A reliever with 13 wins! Here in the playoffs, he now has one win and three saves. He's also absorbing multiple innings when called upon and has become one of the biggest postseason bullpen weapons we've ever seen.
That isn't hyperbole. After the five-out save in Game 2 of the World Series, a 5-4 Brewers win that gives them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, Ashby's playoff stats are ridiculous. The line: 15 ⅔ IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 17 K.
The most consecutive scoreless innings to start a postseason in MLB history?
- 2016 Andrew Miller: 16
- 2026 Aaron Ashby: 15 ⅔
- 1984 Andy Hawkins: 15 ⅓
- 1981 Goose Gossage: 14 ⅓
Sure, Ashby was coming off a very good regular season, but he wasn't this level of bullpen killer. He had a 3.12 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. This is something entirely new.
Not only that, but he's had razor-thin margins with which to work.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, Ashby came in to a tie game and got all four Padres batters he faced out. The Brewers won (shocking, I know). In Game 2, he entered with the Brewers down by a run and he held it right there. They won in walk-off fashion. In Game 4, he entered with a one-run lead and worked three hitless, scoreless innings, grabbing the win (starter Robert Gasser failed to complete five innings).
Onto the NLCS. In Game 1 against the Dodgers, Ashby came in with a one-run lead and went two innings without allowing a run. In Game 2, you guessed it, he came in with a one-run lead. He got the final five outs for a save. Sure enough, in the clinching Game 4, Ashby entered yet again with a one-run lead. He got a three-inning save to win the National League pennant.
Thus far in the World Series, he's recorded 10 outs without allowing a run while protecting a two-run lead in Game 1 and a one-run lead in Game 2.
Not too bad for a fourth-round draft pick out of Crowder College, huh?
"He does what it takes," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after the Game 2 win on Saturday. "It's unconventional. Multiple innings in relief. It's Goose Gossage-like. I guess we had a guy like that here too, Rollie [Fingers]. Multiple-inning relief. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you go with it."
The Brewers are a well-rounded ballclub. They are good at pretty much everything. The only aspect in which they don't particularly statistically excel is home runs, but they hit timely ones and have done so throughout the playoffs. The top of the rotation features extremely talented young arms. The bullpen is both deep and outstanding. Ashby, though, has been separating himself all playoffs.
Aaron Ashby has been one of the greatest postseason relief weapons in MLB history. Now his team is just two wins from the championship.
