October 13, 2025 • 15 mins
On the eve of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, we bring you this "NLCS Starter Pack" with 3 things we're looking at as we head into the series. Go Dodgers!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, everybody, it's Richard no West today. He's locked in
the basement. I'm just kidding. He'll be back. It's Sunday,
October twelfth, and the National League Championship Series starts tomorrow
the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the Milwaukee Brewers at American
(00:26):
Family Field in Milwaukee. We're looking at a five pm
Pacific start time for Game one on Monday. I am
very excited about it, and I'm sure you are too,
and we will be covering it here no doubt in
our big, juicy canonical DBD episodes, which drop on Fridays.
(00:46):
But I wanted to put together a short bonus episode
starter pack in the meantime ahead of Game one as
a public service and bring you three things that I'm
thinking about going into THELCS. The Dodgers are in for
a tough one. The Milwaukee Brewers were the best team
(01:09):
in baseball during the twenty twenty five regular season. They
also swept the Dodgers this year twice in both of
the team's head to head matchups during the regular season. Yikes.
I love it when we go from the Division Series
to the Championship Series because we switch from a best
(01:30):
of five to a best of seven format. Only four
teams left. The Mariners and the Blue Jays looked pretty
evenly matched. We just saw the Mariners take Game one
of the ALCS earlier today on Sunday. Things are getting
real and anything can happen. So here we go with
three things to know slash things I'm looking at going
(01:52):
into the NLCS to help get you ready. Thing one
our opponents, the Milwaukee Brewers, A little bit about them.
They are known as the Average Joe's. That's their nickname
this year and it is self anointed Brewers manager Pat
(02:16):
Murphy came up with it, and the idea is that
they have this working class identity. And it's true that
there are not a lot of household names on the
Milwaukee Brewers. Christian Yelich perhaps qualifies as such. Yelly, as
he has known, was on Mouki's podcast, which seems to
(02:37):
be the Cool Kids Club. And they've got Freddy Peralta,
he's their ace, but it's not the Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Shoho,
Tani Clayton Kershaw YadA, YadA YadA that the Dodgers have.
I saw a clip on Twitter where Pat Murphy said
something to the effect of, I don't know how many
of our guys would even make that team. Speaking of
(02:58):
the Dodgers, there is this aw shucks thing going on,
and it's fairly convincing. I mean, it's true that they're
not stacked with superstars, and there is an enormous discrepancy
between the payroll of the Dodgers and that of the Brewers.
But the flip side of that is that they have
the best record in baseball. So in the pre series
(03:18):
pressers that came out today, the Dodgers were kind of
countering that narrative. But this average Joe identity also speaks
to the style of baseball that they play. The Brewers
excel at what is known as small ball, old school baseball,
meaning they make a lot of contact, they don't strike
(03:38):
out a lot, They put the ball in play, they
make the other team play defense. They're aggressive on the
base paths, you know, they bunt, they move guys over,
they steal, They play actual baseball, and that definitely makes
interesting things happen in the postseason where stakes are high.
I mean, just look at how the Dodgers and ds
(04:01):
series ended the other night. This was a moment that
has reverberated throughout baseball and beyond, so you probably know
what I'm talking about, and you're listening to this show,
so ostensibly you're following the Dodgers, if only through our coverage,
but just as a refresher. It was the bottom of
the eleventh inning, one to one tie with two outs
(04:22):
and the bases were loaded. It was a Dodger stadium,
so we were the home team, and Andy Pies was
at the plate facing off against Philly's reliever O'Ryan Kirkering,
and Pies hits this soft roller straight back to the mound,
and Kirkering kind of boots the ball, but then he
recovers it and there's still plenty of time to make
(04:43):
a play at first base, but instead, probably because he
booted the ball and that caused him some panic and
home plate was right in front of him and the
would be winning run was racing down the third baseline
in haisan Kim, Kirkering didn't throw to first to throw
home instead, and he threw way wide like up the
(05:04):
third baseline, and there was no chance for Philly's catcher
jt real mutto to catch it, and so instead of
making the easy out at first base, which would have
meant that the game would continue into the twelfth inning
and his team would have another chance to score. Kirkering
made a throwing error that cost his team the game
and the season. And this was a really resonant moment
(05:27):
because Kirkering is twenty four years old and to see
the Dodgers players streaming past him, jumping up and down
in jubilation to celebrate what just happened while he stands
there with his hands on his knees, bent over at
the waist, hanging his head. I mean, talk about pathos,
(05:48):
And we could go on and on about this because
I think actually there's a lot to say, but the
point is to bring it back to the Brewers. Look,
this is a bonus episode. Nobody said that it would
be perfect. When you make a lot of contact and
you're aggressive on the base paths and you put the
ball in play, that can have results. And in the
postseason the stakes are higher and there are real consequences,
(06:13):
and so it's something to look out for with this scrappy,
youthful team known as the Average Joes. And with that
we conclude our discussion of thing one onto thing two
that I'm looking at going into the NLCS the Game
one pitching matchup, because that can really set the tone
(06:37):
for the series. We've got Blake Snell Snell Zilla on
the bump for Game one and the Brewers are pitching TBD.
It looks like they're going to go with an opener
and then hand it over to either Quinn Priester or
Jose Kintana, both of whom are very solid. But we
(06:57):
are hoping that Blake Snell can and be better. And
this is Blake Snell's first year as a Dodger after
getting a big contract with a lot of years and
a lot of millions of dollars, and you'll hear that
he was brought here for this. He spent most of
the regular season on the injured list, but he's healthy
and looking really good in his recent starts. He pitched
(07:21):
six scoreless innings in Game two of the NLDS against
a very good Philadelphia Phillies lineup. And he's pitched in
big games before, most famously in the World Series against
the Dodgers in twenty twenty, when Snell was on the
Tampa Bay Rays and the Ray's manager Kevin Cash cold Snell,
(07:44):
even though he had only thrown seventy three pitches, and
he was striking guys out, but Cash was obeying the
third time through the order dictum, where you don't let
your starter face a lineup three times through, and so
Cash pulled Lake Snell in the sixth inning. And it's
sort of a famously maligned decision because right away Nick
(08:08):
Anderson allowed the tying and go ahead runs and that
led to the Dodgers win and the Dodgers' World Series
victory in twenty twenty. So it'd be a nice little
piece of baseball poetry if Blake Snell got it done
for the Dodgers here in twenty twenty five. He has
two cy Young Awards, but he's never won the World Series,
(08:31):
so certainly he is motivated to do his best. And
of course, as with so many of our high profile
veteran acquisitions, the reason why Snell said that he wanted
to come to the Dodgers is to win. And luckily,
Snell is a pretty good strikeout pitcher. I'm just going
to look up how many he got in his last start. Yeah,
(08:55):
he had nine strikeouts in that game too. Nlds start
against the Phillies in just six innings, or he allowed
only one hit, and in a presser today, Snell said, quote,
the goal is to keep them off the bases, which yes,
is a great idea because that reduces the variables and
(09:15):
the sort of small ball baseball plays where things can
go wrong. So we'll be looking at what Snell can
do to control the running game. The Brewers led the
league in stolen bases this year, and they had seven
players with fourteen steals or more. And the one thing
about Snell he has a high walk rate, and the
(09:36):
walks are sort of the tell tale sign of when
Snell is, as Vin Scully would say, like the little
girl with the curl. When he is good, he is
very good, indeed, but when he is bad, he is horrid.
And of course, in addition to stolen bases, if the
brew crew is getting runners on, that's a chance for
other small ball stuff like bunts moving guys over. So
(10:00):
why not just devoid the whole thing and strike everybody out?
Could you do that? Blake? And last thing on this
Will Smith is very good at throwing runners out on
the base paths. He had a twenty seven point two
percent caught stealing rate this season. The league average was
just over twenty three percent, but he's still recovering from
(10:23):
a hairline fracture in his throwing hand, which put him
on the il for most of the month of September.
So if Smitty is feeling tender in that right hand,
that's another factor. And Ben Roartbett has been great in
Smitty's absence. But I assume that we're going to want
Will Smith's bat, which leads us to our third and
(10:45):
final thing that I am looking at going into this NLCS,
which is the offense and particularly the offensive output of
one player who you may have heard of, sho Hey
Otani Shohey has not had a good post season at
the plate, and in fact, in the NLDS he was
(11:09):
completely neutralized by the Phillies' pitching staff. He went one
four eighteen with nine strikeouts. He did work two walks.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts even came out and talked about this, saying,
We're not going to win the World Series with that
sort of performance. That's a direct quote. So we're counting
(11:33):
on a recalibration, getting back into the strike zone and
understanding when he faces left handed pitching what they're going
to try to do crowd him in off the plate,
spin him away. He's just got to be better at
managing the hitting zone. I'm counting on it. We are
all counting on it. End quote. And yes, I would
(11:56):
say we definitely are all counting on it. We need
show Hay to do something. These games have been way
too close. They're taking way too many years off of
my life. And although I really do enjoy the tension
of closely fought, low scoring postseason baseball games, we have
(12:17):
had a fair amount of that already, and it would
be nice to see the greatest player in baseball shine
when the lights are brightest. So it's something that everybody
is talking about that I did see somebody point out
that show Hey especially struggles against left handed pitchers with
(12:37):
lower arm angles, and this aligns with what Dave Roberts
said in that quote. And you can just look at
how the Phillies had Lozardo Suarez, Strom Sanchez, all lefties,
all lower arm angles, which could explain why show Hay
had such a tough series against the Phillies. And good news,
(13:00):
the Brewers only have one lefty with a low arm
angle and he is a reliever. So hopefully we see
show Hey catch fire this series. Wouldn't that be a sight?
And just to spread it around a little bit. Freddie
Freeman has also not been doing much, just two hits
in the NLDS and five for twenty three overall in
(13:24):
the postseason so far. We all know what Freddy is
capable of doing in the highest pressure situation. Just thinking
about last year's game one brings a smile to one's face.
But this is a new year. What have you done
for me lately? That's how baseball fans are. There's a
(13:45):
job to do. Freddy needs to turn it on too.
The good news is that we're advancing and we have
only lost one game in this postseason. Even with these
sub performances from two of our MV three. What we
would be capable of if these guys reach their full
potential in these games? Okay, there it is my three
(14:10):
things that I'm looking at. Headed into the NLCS and
your starter pack for watching what is sure to be
a really terrific week of baseball with two of the
best teams duking it out. There's nothing like it. Thank
you for listening to this special bonus edition NLCS Starter pack.
(14:35):
BBD Daily Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by
me Richard Parks. The third original music in this episode
by William Ryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes, and The Blasting Company.
Dodger Blue Dream is produced in partnership with iheart's My
(14:56):
Cultura podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. We'll be back on Friday with another episode,
Go Dodgers,
Hey, everybody, it's Richard no West today. He's locked in
the basement. I'm just kidding. He'll be back. It's Sunday,
October twelfth, and the National League Championship Series starts tomorrow
the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the Milwaukee Brewers at American
(00:26):
Family Field in Milwaukee. We're looking at a five pm
Pacific start time for Game one on Monday. I am
very excited about it, and I'm sure you are too,
and we will be covering it here no doubt in
our big, juicy canonical DBD episodes, which drop on Fridays.
(00:46):
But I wanted to put together a short bonus episode
starter pack in the meantime ahead of Game one as
a public service and bring you three things that I'm
thinking about going into THELCS. The Dodgers are in for
a tough one. The Milwaukee Brewers were the best team
(01:09):
in baseball during the twenty twenty five regular season. They
also swept the Dodgers this year twice in both of
the team's head to head matchups during the regular season. Yikes.
I love it when we go from the Division Series
to the Championship Series because we switch from a best
(01:30):
of five to a best of seven format. Only four
teams left. The Mariners and the Blue Jays looked pretty
evenly matched. We just saw the Mariners take Game one
of the ALCS earlier today on Sunday. Things are getting
real and anything can happen. So here we go with
three things to know slash things I'm looking at going
(01:52):
into the NLCS to help get you ready. Thing one
our opponents, the Milwaukee Brewers, A little bit about them.
They are known as the Average Joe's. That's their nickname
this year and it is self anointed Brewers manager Pat
(02:16):
Murphy came up with it, and the idea is that
they have this working class identity. And it's true that
there are not a lot of household names on the
Milwaukee Brewers. Christian Yelich perhaps qualifies as such. Yelly, as
he has known, was on Mouki's podcast, which seems to
(02:37):
be the Cool Kids Club. And they've got Freddy Peralta,
he's their ace, but it's not the Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Shoho,
Tani Clayton Kershaw YadA, YadA YadA that the Dodgers have.
I saw a clip on Twitter where Pat Murphy said
something to the effect of, I don't know how many
of our guys would even make that team. Speaking of
(02:58):
the Dodgers, there is this aw shucks thing going on,
and it's fairly convincing. I mean, it's true that they're
not stacked with superstars, and there is an enormous discrepancy
between the payroll of the Dodgers and that of the Brewers.
But the flip side of that is that they have
the best record in baseball. So in the pre series
(03:18):
pressers that came out today, the Dodgers were kind of
countering that narrative. But this average Joe identity also speaks
to the style of baseball that they play. The Brewers
excel at what is known as small ball, old school baseball,
meaning they make a lot of contact, they don't strike
(03:38):
out a lot, They put the ball in play, they
make the other team play defense. They're aggressive on the
base paths, you know, they bunt, they move guys over,
they steal, They play actual baseball, and that definitely makes
interesting things happen in the postseason where stakes are high.
I mean, just look at how the Dodgers and ds
(04:01):
series ended the other night. This was a moment that
has reverberated throughout baseball and beyond, so you probably know
what I'm talking about, and you're listening to this show,
so ostensibly you're following the Dodgers, if only through our coverage,
but just as a refresher. It was the bottom of
the eleventh inning, one to one tie with two outs
(04:22):
and the bases were loaded. It was a Dodger stadium,
so we were the home team, and Andy Pies was
at the plate facing off against Philly's reliever O'Ryan Kirkering,
and Pies hits this soft roller straight back to the mound,
and Kirkering kind of boots the ball, but then he
recovers it and there's still plenty of time to make
(04:43):
a play at first base, but instead, probably because he
booted the ball and that caused him some panic and
home plate was right in front of him and the
would be winning run was racing down the third baseline
in haisan Kim, Kirkering didn't throw to first to throw
home instead, and he threw way wide like up the
(05:04):
third baseline, and there was no chance for Philly's catcher
jt real mutto to catch it, and so instead of
making the easy out at first base, which would have
meant that the game would continue into the twelfth inning
and his team would have another chance to score. Kirkering
made a throwing error that cost his team the game
and the season. And this was a really resonant moment
(05:27):
because Kirkering is twenty four years old and to see
the Dodgers players streaming past him, jumping up and down
in jubilation to celebrate what just happened while he stands
there with his hands on his knees, bent over at
the waist, hanging his head. I mean, talk about pathos,
(05:48):
And we could go on and on about this because
I think actually there's a lot to say, but the
point is to bring it back to the Brewers. Look,
this is a bonus episode. Nobody said that it would
be perfect. When you make a lot of contact and
you're aggressive on the base paths and you put the
ball in play, that can have results. And in the
postseason the stakes are higher and there are real consequences,
(06:13):
and so it's something to look out for with this scrappy,
youthful team known as the Average Joes. And with that
we conclude our discussion of thing one onto thing two
that I'm looking at going into the NLCS the Game
one pitching matchup, because that can really set the tone
(06:37):
for the series. We've got Blake Snell Snell Zilla on
the bump for Game one and the Brewers are pitching TBD.
It looks like they're going to go with an opener
and then hand it over to either Quinn Priester or
Jose Kintana, both of whom are very solid. But we
(06:57):
are hoping that Blake Snell can and be better. And
this is Blake Snell's first year as a Dodger after
getting a big contract with a lot of years and
a lot of millions of dollars, and you'll hear that
he was brought here for this. He spent most of
the regular season on the injured list, but he's healthy
and looking really good in his recent starts. He pitched
(07:21):
six scoreless innings in Game two of the NLDS against
a very good Philadelphia Phillies lineup. And he's pitched in
big games before, most famously in the World Series against
the Dodgers in twenty twenty, when Snell was on the
Tampa Bay Rays and the Ray's manager Kevin Cash cold Snell,
(07:44):
even though he had only thrown seventy three pitches, and
he was striking guys out, but Cash was obeying the
third time through the order dictum, where you don't let
your starter face a lineup three times through, and so
Cash pulled Lake Snell in the sixth inning. And it's
sort of a famously maligned decision because right away Nick
(08:08):
Anderson allowed the tying and go ahead runs and that
led to the Dodgers win and the Dodgers' World Series
victory in twenty twenty. So it'd be a nice little
piece of baseball poetry if Blake Snell got it done
for the Dodgers here in twenty twenty five. He has
two cy Young Awards, but he's never won the World Series,
(08:31):
so certainly he is motivated to do his best. And
of course, as with so many of our high profile
veteran acquisitions, the reason why Snell said that he wanted
to come to the Dodgers is to win. And luckily,
Snell is a pretty good strikeout pitcher. I'm just going
to look up how many he got in his last start. Yeah,
(08:55):
he had nine strikeouts in that game too. Nlds start
against the Phillies in just six innings, or he allowed
only one hit, and in a presser today, Snell said, quote,
the goal is to keep them off the bases, which yes,
is a great idea because that reduces the variables and
(09:15):
the sort of small ball baseball plays where things can
go wrong. So we'll be looking at what Snell can
do to control the running game. The Brewers led the
league in stolen bases this year, and they had seven
players with fourteen steals or more. And the one thing
about Snell he has a high walk rate, and the
(09:36):
walks are sort of the tell tale sign of when
Snell is, as Vin Scully would say, like the little
girl with the curl. When he is good, he is
very good, indeed, but when he is bad, he is horrid.
And of course, in addition to stolen bases, if the
brew crew is getting runners on, that's a chance for
other small ball stuff like bunts moving guys over. So
(10:00):
why not just devoid the whole thing and strike everybody out?
Could you do that? Blake? And last thing on this
Will Smith is very good at throwing runners out on
the base paths. He had a twenty seven point two
percent caught stealing rate this season. The league average was
just over twenty three percent, but he's still recovering from
(10:23):
a hairline fracture in his throwing hand, which put him
on the il for most of the month of September.
So if Smitty is feeling tender in that right hand,
that's another factor. And Ben Roartbett has been great in
Smitty's absence. But I assume that we're going to want
Will Smith's bat, which leads us to our third and
(10:45):
final thing that I am looking at going into this NLCS,
which is the offense and particularly the offensive output of
one player who you may have heard of, sho Hey
Otani Shohey has not had a good post season at
the plate, and in fact, in the NLDS he was
(11:09):
completely neutralized by the Phillies' pitching staff. He went one
four eighteen with nine strikeouts. He did work two walks.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts even came out and talked about this, saying,
We're not going to win the World Series with that
sort of performance. That's a direct quote. So we're counting
(11:33):
on a recalibration, getting back into the strike zone and
understanding when he faces left handed pitching what they're going
to try to do crowd him in off the plate,
spin him away. He's just got to be better at
managing the hitting zone. I'm counting on it. We are
all counting on it. End quote. And yes, I would
(11:56):
say we definitely are all counting on it. We need
show Hay to do something. These games have been way
too close. They're taking way too many years off of
my life. And although I really do enjoy the tension
of closely fought, low scoring postseason baseball games, we have
(12:17):
had a fair amount of that already, and it would
be nice to see the greatest player in baseball shine
when the lights are brightest. So it's something that everybody
is talking about that I did see somebody point out
that show Hey especially struggles against left handed pitchers with
(12:37):
lower arm angles, and this aligns with what Dave Roberts
said in that quote. And you can just look at
how the Phillies had Lozardo Suarez, Strom Sanchez, all lefties,
all lower arm angles, which could explain why show Hay
had such a tough series against the Phillies. And good news,
(13:00):
the Brewers only have one lefty with a low arm
angle and he is a reliever. So hopefully we see
show Hey catch fire this series. Wouldn't that be a sight?
And just to spread it around a little bit. Freddie
Freeman has also not been doing much, just two hits
in the NLDS and five for twenty three overall in
(13:24):
the postseason so far. We all know what Freddy is
capable of doing in the highest pressure situation. Just thinking
about last year's game one brings a smile to one's face.
But this is a new year. What have you done
for me lately? That's how baseball fans are. There's a
(13:45):
job to do. Freddy needs to turn it on too.
The good news is that we're advancing and we have
only lost one game in this postseason. Even with these
sub performances from two of our MV three. What we
would be capable of if these guys reach their full
potential in these games? Okay, there it is my three
(14:10):
things that I'm looking at. Headed into the NLCS and
your starter pack for watching what is sure to be
a really terrific week of baseball with two of the
best teams duking it out. There's nothing like it. Thank
you for listening to this special bonus edition NLCS Starter pack.
(14:35):
BBD Daily Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by
me Richard Parks. The third original music in this episode
by William Ryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes, and The Blasting Company.
Dodger Blue Dream is produced in partnership with iheart's My
(14:56):
Cultura podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. We'll be back on Friday with another episode,
Go Dodgers,
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