Two games, two cases where the starting pitcher matters more than the table. In the NLDS opener, Milwaukee hands the ball to its Cy Young favourite at home while San Diego answers with a lefty who has struggled with control. In Seoul, KIA sends its in-form starter against an LG side that has lost six straight and looks short on both runs and belief.
Milwaukee first. Jacob Misiorowski finished 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA, and he threw seven scoreless innings with ten strikeouts against this same Padres club back in May. His last outing was 5.1 scoreless innings on only 68 pitches. The Brewers also come in rested, and their bullpen has not thrown an inning in the last three days.
San Diego's Robbie Ray has walked nearly as many hitters as he has struck out, and the Padres are expected to lean on their bullpen. That reads like an admission that the starting-pitching edge belongs to Milwaukee. The Padres are hot after sweeping the Cubs, but a relief-heavy plan against the team with the best record in baseball is the kind of game the Brewers are built for.
Now the KBO game. LG and KIA are playing a three-game series that is basically a fight for third place. KIA's Keisho Shirakawa has a 1.65 ERA over his last three starts and was the club's September MVP. LG's Kim Yun-sik has had a rough year, including a 9.82 ERA in June, and the local press calls him a lighter option than Shirakawa.
LG's slump has clear causes. They scored one run in two of their recent losses, gave up a ninth-inning walk-off after leading 3-0, and wasted a bases-loaded chance in the previous game. One report says the team lost its drive once the second-place chase faded. KIA just snapped a three-game losing run with a one-run win built on a late squeeze, and its manager has said he will use the bullpen aggressively. Starter quality and the mood of the two dugouts are what point me to the visitors here.
The two legs are independent, which is the point: each rests on a specific pitching edge that the table and the home-field label do not fully capture.
