Jake Bauers Saves His Family (Also Signs With Red Sox)

 

I sometimes make the mistake of reading baseball deals and signings with logic. The reality is nothing makes sense, GMs know more than I do and nothing can be properly predicted. I cling to stats and history because it's all I can really use to direct where I think something's going, and sometimes that's not accurate. The Angels signing Anthony Rendon in 2020 WAS a good move. That he didn't play well at all during the contract isn't something that anyone could have predicted. Same with Lance Berkman joining the Cardinals, it may not have looked like a good move but it helped revitalize the lineup and resulted in a World Series ring. 

So I say this disclaimer because I admit that my perception is flawed, and that I don't really know as much as the people who make and sign off on these deals.

...That being said, the Jake Bauers to Boston thing doesn't make any sense to me.

I mean, it sort of does if you can believe the bullshit of the baseball life. Bauers failed as a prospect, bounced around as a backup bat, came off the bench in New York and Milwaukee and this year was one of the best hitters in baseball. Bauers's season was seen as a feel good story, the guy who nearly gave up on the game, pressed on and somehow got incredible and won a World Series. So by the Red Sox' logic, Bauers always was a great player, and circumstances finally came together this season for him to become a terrific hard-hitting 1st baseman, who can now continue to be that hard-hitting 1st baseman for the next four years for them. 

Now...here's the thing. Jake Bauers, as has become public now, was going to retire after the 2024 season. To recap, by 2024, he'd had a cute bench season with the Yankees, then was flipped to the Brewers for two prospects who are still in the minors [great job Cashman, I'll deal with you later], had a mediocre year as a bench man in Milwaukee, and was gonna throw it in. The idea was gonna be he'd stay at home with his kid, his wife would go back to work, teach probably, and that would be that. However, as we now know, Lauren Bauers was pregnant with their second child, and to keep benefits, Bauers would need to continue playing. 

I know it's never a good idea to brush into any political topic in this space, but if there was a comprehensive health care system that didn't rely solely on steady jobs and consistent work to keep it active, we would not be in this situation. If this was Canada or the Netherlands or whatever, Bauers would retire, take care of the kids, and his baseball career would be seen as a bump along the road. But because of the American healthcare system, in order for Bauers to be an integral member of society, he needed to return to work while his wife had the kid. And it was that motivation, solely for the benefit of raising a family without breaking into a lower financial bracket, that led Bauers to a bounce-back 2025 as a bench bat and eventually a landmark 2026 season as the Brewers' starting 1st baseman, and eventually to the Red Sox.

Okay. So Bauers has solved the problem. He will now be getting 58 million dollars, essentially for the recreation of his best season spread across four more. He's saved his family, he can probably retire in 7 years to Framingham or something, the financial troubles are over. This is the end of the movie, though. The movie doesn't end with 'and then Jake Bauers played for the Red Sox for four seasons and sort of recreated the magic'. Because honestly, that doesn't matter as much as 'Jake Bauers has the best season of his life and saves his family'. THAT's the movie. Chris Pratt'll whine that the Oscars didn't respect his vision and everything. 

The fire that was under Bauers for this season was getting his family under a stable roof, and he did that. Now that he's getting the money, that motivation isn't there. And so there's a conversation about 'did Bauers have that season BECAUSE he needed to save his family, or was this talent always going to be unlocked with the right circumstances?'. And that's a really tricky conversation, it's nature and nurture really- you don't know. We'll never know if, had there not been a financial need to perform, Bauers would still have a terrific season in 2026. Although next season, whenever that may be, might be the closest thing to a trial run at that. With the Sox, Bauers will be expected to succeed to the standard he did in Milwaukee, with a similarly well-crafted team, and lots of space to play. Will he do as well without that motivator? Will it prove how important the motivator was to his 2026 success.

And yes, this whole thing is a really messed up thing to ask about a player's performance. Ideally, we'd be in an economical situation that did not rely upon quantity of work in order to justify one's right to live. There is likely going to be a lockout in a month's time that hinges on the question of 'how far are we willing to go to nullify the right to reward a worker for his merits in a time when, universally, the worker is routinely devalued?'. But this is what's come to light. And it came to light in a way that initially framed Jake Bauers' story as an inspirational one. There's often an attempt made by a governing body to frame stories like this as inspirational in an attempt to dissuade people that the system is flawed. A whole school pooling sick days to give to their colleague who wasn't allowed sick leave. A crowdfunded effort to save a beloved voice actor's family from poverty after it's made clear how difficult it was for the man to support his family to begin with. And it's framed as 'look at how great this is. Look at how they succeeded'. Ignoring the failures in the system. Jake Bauers being forced into playing baseball again, becoming a hero and getting a payday [to play 4 more years] is going to be framed as inspirational. There are aspects that are pretty cool. But it makes it clear that we only really value workers when their struggles are made to be palatable to us. We can't just value them for doing their job normally, as Bauers is being paid to do. 

And let's also mention that Pat Murphy knew this was going to happen. When they won, Murphy said to Bauers, "you're gonna make a lot of money", and that he should remember this team "when you're playing for that horseshit Yankee team". Basically saying, 'you're gonna get your payday and you won't have to play well anymore to keep your job, but remember what this felt like'. And Murphy got a lot of shit for that, but he's right. Brian Cashman pays people to play for the Yankees, he doesn't pay them to win a World Series. He pays them to keep the brand alive. Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Cody Bellinger, they've all taken massive paydays from the Yankees as rewards for excellent seasons. Them having great seasons after that is a nice perk, but they're there as a benefit of playing well, without the incentive to continue playing well. This is essentially what the Bauers Sox contract is. Obviously the Sox want to win, but Bauers's deal is a reward for his Brewers season, with an added 'if you keep doing that and help us win a ring, that'd be great'. And Bauers is aware of this. If he wanted to push himself to what got him a 2026 season, and honestly a ring, he wouldn't have taken the money. This is job security for Bauers. He needed that, famously. And now he has it for four years. Having a 30-homer season as an all-star for Boston would be a nice perk, but it doesn't as matter as much as what got him this contract.

There's other issues I have with the Bauers deal. Again, you're giving a big deal to a guy who only has one truly great season under his belt. You're also moving your star 1st baseman to DH, and I feel as though the Sox have done this before with a star hitter and it didn't go very well. Also, consider the fact that Contreras has been seen as pretty volatile in the past, and is the kind of guy you really don't want to piss off. At best, this is a Mike Lowell kind of addition for the Sox, at worst it's another misguided move that dilutes what could be a strong run. Really the moral implications are what makes this such an odd deal. It's a deal where the actual results on the field arguably don't really matter as much as the act of actually getting the money, and it's a picture of where baseball is today, and where the world is today.

Again, this is hard to discuss because it's not as simple as 'he had a good season because he needed to', obviously there were circumstances that came together. But it's an odd comeback story [sidenote: he didn't even get Comeback Player of the Year? What the hell did Zack Wheeler come back from comparatively? Being snubbed for a Cy Young three times??], and an odd route to success that may not completely be taken at face value, despite the intrinsic want to take it as it is. Much like this contract.

I don't know how many other signings we're gonna get til Manfred decides the fun's over til July, but I doubt anything will be as loaded as this one. Then again, I could be surprised. 

Brew October

 

So. Full disclosure. I had a job interview earlier this year with MLB. It didn't especially lead anywhere, and I've found gigs afterwards that have worked out, but I did interview with them, and it was a very nice conversation. I was asked what I look for in an MLB season, as a sort of 'gotcha' to weed out people who don't know anything about baseball, but it ended up being a 'gotcha' on them because I can talk about baseball for hours interrupted if given the opportunity. And I talked about how I root for the underdog, the contact teams. I talked about wanting teams like the Pirates or Orioles to do well, and specifically mentioned the Brewers, who were building something. The interviewer was slightly skeptical, as they'd just traded Freddy Peralta, but I said 'they needed to make room for Logan Henderson, they know what they're doing'. 

I didn't get the job but I'm wondering if that interviewer is remembering that about now. Going 'maybe he was onto something'. Because I saw the Brewers' path to a World Series in January, when people still thought they were a 2nd place, non-competitive team, and sure enough...there they are.

It has been a WHILE since we've seen a team absolutely body the playoffs like the Brewers have. Someone mentioned the 2022 Astros, but even they got clobbered by the Phillies in the World Series. Literally the only time the Brewers came into any trouble this month was when Shane Drohan was on the mound. Nothing against Drohan, but his arm trouble's ruined his ability to keep offenses down, and he was the only weak link in the entire chain. Aside from that, and some infield error issues...the Brewers were unstoppable. Only 2 losses, and a lot of huge wins against very difficult teams. Taking down the Dodgers and Rays, two teams that always found ways to win during the regular season, without much effort required...that's incredible.

The Brewers stayed hot the whole playoff season, even with the first round bye. The power of terrific pitching, wonderful contact hitting and a ton of young stars in their primes won this ring. And again, as I've said all season, this is only the beginning of the gold rush for Milwaukee. Jesus Made, Jett Williams, Andrew Fischer, Jeferson Quero and Luis Pena are all coming, and that's just the people we know about. Misiorowski and Chourio are still very young, and these are two guys you can build a team around. Pratt can do all of that in a World Series in his rookie year. Henderson, Gasser, Turang, Lara and possibly a healthier Kyle Harrison will be there next year immediately. This team, which is already excellent, as the potential to get even better. I cannot imagine a better version of this Brewers team, especially after watching this series and seeing them obliterate an already-great team like the Rays, and blaze through the competition like nobody else. 

This World Series sets up a narrative of the Brewers being one of the league superpowers. And we're headed for the possibility of a lockout and a reassessment of league priorities on the basis of wealth of ownership. So it'll be interesting if they make it back, even though I believe they can.

Very happy for the Brewers. Was a wonderful World Series, and proved a lot of people wrong. More of this please. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to see baseball again. 

World Series Game 4: Eventually Everything Rhymes

 

An extra-inning game happening on the 15th anniversary of David Freese's walk-off-, in a Game 4 that began with Brett Phillips throwing out a first pitch. The universe set the table. The possibility of recurrence was there. The Rays delivered.

Wild game, first of all. Griffin Jax and Dustin May doing surprisingly nice starting jobs is proof that the starting pitching job should not die off in the playoffs, as much as many teams want to keep using openers. The Rays found the guy who the Brewers had trouble with, and it was somehow Griffin Jax, who, along with the bullpen, shut out basically every hitter except for Cooper Pratt. Hamilton had a homer, Chourio broke a record, but if it wasn't for Pratt's 4-for-5 day, this wouldn't have been close. It was a full-club pitching effort that the Rays needed. It will exhaust them going forward, but it was worth it to keep the Brewers at bay.

This also exhausted the Brewers' bullpen, as once it was down to Shane Drohan, the only real pitcher that anybody's had fun with this month, the Rays struck, getting everybody on base, the tying run home and the Williamson single to win it, not hurt by more Brewers errors. They pushed on this team til the good relievers were used, and it sets up a Game 5 that will live and die by starting pitching. Jacob Misiorowski will likely get the ball for Milwaukee, and the Rays might have to go with Drew Rasmussen on short rest. The idea is to strike while the fatigue is hot and force a Game 6 without getting overly exhausted themselves. When they needed the help, the Rays got great work from Liam Hicks, Jonny DeLuca, and Chandler Simpson, and someone like infield whiz kid Ben Williamson could be the hero. Now...Junior Caminero was walking a little funny to end the game, and there may be something amiss with the star third baseman, which is not a good thing heading into another do-or-die game, but this was a game the Rays won with contact work, and if they can locate that same stuff again, they could bring this back to Milwaukee.

This series felt predictable for approximately 5 seconds, then the Rays broke it open and kept the fun going. It'll be interesting to see how Game 5 goes, and who'll come out on top there. I'm still pulling for Milwaukee, but if this thing keeps going I won't exactly complain.

World Series Game 2: No Lead Safe

 

Usually for a playoff game writeup I do one new custom but I couldn't decide between these two. Frelick's longball put the win into motion, but Ashby's been incredible all month and Murphy's decision to keep him in sealed the deal.

Anyway, the Brewers. We knew they'd be good. We knew they'd get a lot done in a World Series. But this is insane. How do you go into a game where the narrative is 'either Drew Rasmussen or Logan Henderson is going to be the first to shed blood tonight' and none of that is the takeaway. Logan Henderson got beat up in inning one and did not get the loss despite being the only Brewers pitcher to give up any runs. Such is the power of the Brewers' bullpen, where JoJo Romero, D.L. Hall, Dustin May, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby can completely silence you, even if you are the literal Tampa Bay Rays. 

You saw how close they got to adding on. You saw what needed to be worked around to ensure clean frames. Even if they were quiet after the first, people like Chandler Simpson, Jonathan Aranda, Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca still kept charging forward. Despite both teams having a very similar RISP ratio this game, the people that stayed on base for Tampa were far more crucial than the ones that Tampa stranded. Because the Rays' bullpen, as good as they can be, allowed the Brewers to keep chipping away. The errors from Aranda and Simpson piled up, Wells and Seymour continued their rough stretches, Frelick hit the homer and Pratt flipped the game. These teams had the exact same effort; the difference is the Brewers' bullpen was just way better.

Now, this could be what the Rays wanted, wasting a ton of the Brewers' pen arms, because there's still at least two more games up for grabs, preferably four if you're Tampa. The Brewers will likely be going with Robert Gasser in Game 3, and they luckily still have Trevor Megill, Antonio Senzatela, Shane Drohan, Kyle Harrison and, possibly waiting for a start, Brandon Woodruff, not burned out from Game 2. But the Rays will be starting Freddy Peralta, who wants revenge, and has been terrific in this stretch. Using up the bullpen in Game 2 could set up a much needed Rays win at home in Game 3. So the Brewers need to withstand whichever tricks the Rays come up with and keep the series from spoiling over. 

A lot of people online are starting to think the Brewers are cheating, especially because of the Frelick homer. It's a lot easier to accept that the Rays haven't been playing well, the balls the Brewers took advantage of were mistakenly placed, and the whole team has been developed for great contact moments all year. If they were cheating, there'd be more of an actual sign [like a trash can bang] than just 'well I don't like that they're winning'. This isn't the Astros, I'm not getting an 'evil empire' feel from this, they're a great team who's been building to this for a while and have built for sustained success. The 2017 Astros went from 3rd to a title in a year, and competed for like 7 years straight. It's a different thing.

Anyway, Game 3 should be really interesting. If the Brewers can win that one, even with Peralta on the mound, then you can write off Tampa.

On a Heavily-Roofed World Series

 

Any attempt made by the media to dissuade you from enjoying a World Series featuring two #1 seeds that aren't the Dodgers should end immediately. There is so much that's interesting about a Rays-Brewers World Series, even beyond the fact that neither of these teams have ever won, or neither of these teams are large market.

Because you think about what these two teams have in common, and you get some answers like 'they both play in roofs' or 'they're both in markets that enjoy Culver's' or 'they both had concerning jersey ideas in the 90s'. But my favorite thing I've realized about the Rays and the Brewers is this: both teams came into their own after cutting ties with Willy Adames.

No, seriously.

In 2021, Willy Adames was the starting shortstop for the Rays, after helping lead the team to a World Series the year before. Great player, lots to love...except the Rays have another shortstop coming very soon and he'll be there for years probably. So they trade Adames to Milwaukee for J.P. Feyreisen, who at the time was the takeaway, and an unassuming right-hander named Drew Rasmussen. That's one piece that's shaped the Rays into who they are now obviously, Rasmussen in the last two years has become one of the best pitchers in baseball, and there's a decent probability he makes a killing in free agency next year. But it does go further than that. 

So without Adames, the Rays sort of warm shortstop for Wander Franco, have some replacement guys fill in, then in 2022 they bring up Franco and he takes off, in 2023 he's suspended indefinitely, and now...it looks like they traded Adames for no reason. A worse team would crumble here. Not the Rays. Since 2023, they have gone forward with the primary shortstop of...Taylor Walls, who's a .170 hitter but one of the best defenders at the position right now. Obviously they still sub in actual hitters at short from time to time, and the idea is eventually Carson Williams will go there when he learns to hit at the MLB level, but Walls is a valuable piece there, even if he's not Wander Franco. 

And even more crucially, the lack of a Franco piece in that lineup leads room for the next can't-miss prospect, Junior Caminero, who bobbles along for a year or so then takes off last year, becoming one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball and having a second consecutive 40 HR/100 RBI season at 23. And he's also carrying that production into the postseason, and helped break the game open last night against his old organization to go to a World Series. Without the Adames trade, the Rays don't feel the need to leave room for a new homegrown hitter like Caminero [or like Jonathan Aranda]. 

On the other hand, you have the Brewers, who kept Adames for 3 more years and helped him become a perennial star and playoff piece. In 2025, his free agency year, the Brewers, being a low-market team, don't pursue him and let him leave for San Francisco, where his numbers have mellowed. The decision, intentional or not, was to recreate Adames' numbers with smaller, controllable pieces rather than spending the money on more Adames and risking attrition. Since Adames has left, the Brewers have used Joey Ortiz [who they traded for Corbin Burnes, another wise-looking decision in the long run] as a primary shortstop piece, and while he's never been a top-of-the-lineup guy, he's been steady, and has a usual August surge that helps the team a lot. This year, the Brewers called up Cooper Pratt, and while defense has been an issue, he's still a .281 hitter with 34 RBIs in 74 games. He's also 21 years old and has plenty of room to grow. And let's not forget that there's at least one more can't miss shortstop farming in the minors, plus a couple can't miss third basemen. 

Making room by not re-signing Adames has allowed the Brewers to let the infield prospects come into their own in a way that isn't being stifled. This Brewers team can make a World Series, but Cooper Pratt is here, and Jesus Made and Luis Pena are still on the way, and they're worth more to this team than Adames was. 

I have been sort of referring to this as the Willy Adames series, because that's what makes the most sense. But it's really just two teams that have excellent contact game and surprising pitching depth that might go all 7 trading off strength. I think it's gonna be a really fun World Series, and it might be more refreshing than the last few.

My one complaint: there's literally no reason to wait until Friday, aside from typical capitalist conventions of 'it needs to be a Friday night so everyone can see it'. The teams are set. The Brewers have had like a week of rest. Game 6 NEEDED to be Monday evidently to make this work, and we saw how the Guardians did on short rest to make that happen. I think we should have been able to start this thing Thursday or so, but hey, the priorities are that of the league, not of the consumer. Which is alarming, and may get worse after the next bargaining agreement gets fixed. 

Regardless- Rays-Brewers sounds fun. I'd love the Brewers to take it, but the Rays winning would make thematic sense too. Very much here for it. 

Championship Series' Day 5: Seed Change

 

We haven't had a buildup to a World Series appearance like this since 2016. 

The Milwaukee Brewers have made the NLCS four times since 2010, which is more than they had in their entire history to that point. They had a tremendous team in 2011 that ran the NL Central on the backs of Braun and Fielder, the culmination of a five year build, then took the Dodgers to Game 7 in 2018 only to lose anyway, then got swept last year without a fight. And in this time, I can count a handful of seasons where the Brewers had a genuinely great team but failed to capitalize. The 2014 team, which for a while was the best in the NL but ran out of steam in the second half and paved the way for the Cardinals to take the division. The 2023 and 2024 teams, which were good enough to compete but still got bounced in the wild card round either way. Arguably even the 1992 team, which won 92 games but got outweighed for a playoff spot. There have been so many missed opportunities, so many 'so close' finishes, so many great regular seasons that led to a disappointing playoff exit. 

So when this specific Brewers team won 103 games, notched a first seed spot and looked to take on the league, I hoped that the same thing wouldn't happen again. So many Brewers teams have deserved a strong finish but never seemed to pull it off. This team, as good as they were, could be the latest, especially with the inevitability of a run-in with LA.

Well...tonight, the Brewers finished off a 4-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, marked with two road wins, and two epic comebacks. They used contact flair to subdue the Dodgers' bullpen, and had hero moments come from Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell and, yes, David Hamilton, the utility man they got from the Red Sox in exchange for Caleb Durbin, who had the RBI single that started the rally and the solo homer that padded the lead. A team where someone like David Hamilton, or Aaron Ashby, or Jojo Romero, can be the hero, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers on a night where Shohei Ohtani hit a 3-run home run...that is something special. They've done it like this all season, and it's translated to October success. 

I'm really excited to see this team in a World Series. Chourio, Miz, Contreras, Turang, Bauers and Henderson could continue their strong Octobers and become definite franchise legends. I see them winning against either AL team, especially if they made quick work of LA this week. Genuinely heartened to see this team triumph, hope there's more to come.

The Dodgers...I mean, the last thing you can say about this Dodgers team is that they didn't try. This whole threepeat quest has come from an amount of effort that virtually no other team has, and a collection of talent that practically always does what they're supposed to. This is a team built for long term October success the way few others even dream of. The ability to have Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Andy Pages, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman on the same team, all working hard enough to make titles happen, is surprisingly rare in this climate of 'well if we fill seats and sell merch it doesn't matter whether or not we win'. Most teams are fine running a business rather than running a ball club, the Dodgers can do both successfully.

They built this team for a third title. They got Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz, and then they got Tarik Skubal. They did everything to make this happen. That it didn't is no fault of theirs, and mostly the fault of general MLB atrophy. Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, and, yes, Tucker, were all bound to have down seasons eventually. Ohtani, by the end of the season, wasn't pitching and was struggling at the plate. Betts and Freeman are good but not elite anymore. They got to both Yamamoto and Snell, and eventually Glasnow. And Kyle Tucker had a perfectly mediocre season that finally got going in the first month, and gelled into a .300 October with some helpful contact hits tonight. That none of them ever got him home is more the fault of the rest of the team. Same with Edwin Diaz putting his all into a 3-inning relief appearance only to end up padding the Brewers' lead anyway. Even the best of effort still isn't enough sometimes. So now you know how the other 29 teams have felt the last few seasons.

The Dodgers will certainly be back. The rumor is they want to restructure Tucker's contract, and while they're definitely gonna make an effort to sign Skubal, will he want to stay in LA, especially if they're not a proven championship team anymore? They still have the big guns, but how will Freeman, Hernandez, Betts, Muncy and Snell even look next year? Will it really be on Andy Pages and Josue de Paula to keep things moving? Or will it be another business as usual season with yet another World Series appearance? All of this assuming the owners actually let us find out by the way.

People won't want to hear it, but the Dodgers losing here was the right outcome. They're not done, but this wasn't their best team, and if they'd made it to the end anyway with it, it wouldn't really be fair.

There was another game played as well today, and this was somehow the more cut-and-dry one. Solid enough stuff from both teams, but the game came down to Petey Halpin, the defensive center field option, hitting a 2-run home run off of Rays fifth starter Griffin Jax. No wonder they pushed this up to 1. The other series is 'Jackson Chourio hitting a home run off Blake Snell in LA', this is 'welcome to Cleveland, y'wanna watch Steven Kwan rob Richie Palacios of a triple?' It's much different. NOT BAD. This is still fun and I want it to go all 7, which it might. But I can see why the league is downplaying it. 

The Guardians have gotten 2 wins from the toughest team in the AL, and have done it on the backs of Gavin Williams, who struck out everybody, and Foster Griffin, who banked more on leverage. The Guardians are probably throwing out Tanner Bibee tomorrow, while the Rays might go to Nick Martinez. Very soon, the Rays are gonna be out of viable starting arms, while the Guards could very easily go with Joey Cantillo without much issue. All that remains is for the Guardians to keep outhitting this Rays team, which is still difficult considering Simpson and Mesa still had some things to say today.

But...the Guardians held the Rays, known for their contact magic, to three hits today. That's huge. It can be done. I'm not sure if it can be done two more times before the Rays have their say, but it can be done.

Obviously I'd prefer the Guardians to take this one, but if the Rays can do it and we get a battle of the 1 seeds, that'll still make a pretty exciting World Series, so at this point I can't lose.

Championship Series' Day 4: Jake Beats Blake

 

Now are ya listening? Now are ya paying attention? The Brewers are 3 up on the Dodgers, and have put them in killswitch position. The press has been hyping up the Dodgers' threepeat narrative all year, even saw this series as a back-and-forth brawl, and...the Brewers are up 3-0. Against the monolith. 

The wild part was, until that seventh inning, Blake Snell was having the better start. Bobby Gasser was keeping the score down for the most part, but Snell, leadoff homer notwithstanding, worked, striking out 9 in 6 innings. But, in a mirror to Kevin Cash's decision to pull Snell prematurely in the 2020 World Series, Dave Roberts let Snell go out for one more, then the Jake Bauers homer happens, the Mitchell homer happens, and the rest of the game doesn't really come any closer to a Dodgers' win. Ironic, I guess. Dave Roberts might lose this series by trying to out manage Kevin Cash before he even gets to play against him.

Also, the Dodgers' mistakes are beginning to pile up. Justin Wrobleski went wild and a run scored. Shohei Ohtani still isn't hitting at all, and now Freeman and Pages might be going cold. The bullpen the Dodgers worked so hard to avoid using last year is once again blowing games, save for Evan Phillips. And meanwhile, the Brewers are just the better team right now. The defense has been excellent, especially the outfield defense Mitchell and Lara are working with. The bullpen, regardless of Abner Uribe's shoddy work, is still great, and D.L. Hall gets the added kudos for keeping down the Dodgers for two and a third as the Brewers kept plugging away. Chourio's RBIs are continuing to pile up, chasing Andruw Jones' pre-23 record. The road loss narrative is over, the flaws haven't really been showing up. 

One more win and the Brewers do something they haven't done since 1982. Tyler Glasnow will get the ball to prevent it from happening, though I assume he won't be the only one trying to keep the Dodgers alive, as those ratings have gotten be occurring to Manfred about now. The one concerning thing is I'm not sure who the Brewers will start. Dustin May? He's had a spotty track record. Shane Drohan or Kyle Harrison? Or would they need to be opened for? My wild card pick is Chad Patrick. Let him do 3 innings, then have Drohan or May coast, and hopefully that works. The goal is that whatever the plan ends up being will be enough to stop LA, and this has worked so far. 

A sweep would be insane. It's not definite, because these are still the Dodgers, but...what if, man? Especially after 2025. What if that's what happens?