The Brewers have a Game 7 trump card: A well-rested Josh Hader

The Brewers were able to get through a Game 6 win without throwing star reliever Josh Hader on Friday night. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

October 20 at 12:20 PM

MILWAUKEE — Once Josh Hader stopped tossing in the bullpen Friday night, and once it was clear that the Milwaukee Brewers would force a Game 7 without pitching him, the possibilities started to spark on social media and throughout Miller Park and, likely, inside the mind of Craig Counsell.

How would Counsell, the Brewers' manager, use Hader in the decisive game of the National League Championship Series? How long could the lefty go?

“Twelve,” Counsell cracked of how many innings Hader could throw against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night, and when the laughter passed he offered an answer that is much more in line with the Brewers' cryptic pitching practices.

“He’s fresh. He got up tonight. We’ll see how he goes. But you’ll see him tomorrow.”

By saying “he got up tonight,” Counsell acknowledged that Hader warmed up to enter Game 6 before he sat back down. That often taxes a pitcher’s arm, if only marginally, but not needing Hader in a 7-2 win gives Counsell the series' most valuable chess piece in a do-or-die game. In seven innings this postseason, Hader has struck out 12 hitters and not given up a run. He will have had three days of rest since his last appearances against the Dodgers, and had a 1.56 ERA (while holding opponents to a .056 batting average) when coming off three days of rest in the regular season. The Brewers are 24-0 when he has pitched two or more innings in 2018, though Counsell has had to carefully manage his workload to get him the maximum number of high-leverage innings.

He will not need to do that on Saturday. The winner of the game goes on to play the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. The other team will watch from home. Game 1 of that series is on Tuesday, meaning all pitchers will have at least two days of rest before it starts, and meaning Hader could be pushed as far as he can go against the Dodgers. All Counsell has to lose is a chance at the Brewers' first championship.

“There’s no limit,” the 24-year-old Hader said after Friday night’s win. “It’s Game 7.”

The longest he has gone this season is three scoreless innings in a 2-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on July 3. He otherwise has 23 appearances (22 in the regular season, one in the playoffs) of two or more innings. The closest he got to entering in Game 6 was in the eighth inning, if a runner got on base and Counsell needed him against the left-handed Cody Bellinger, but Corbin Burns instead set down six straight Dodgers to end the game.

The Brewers will start veteran Jhoulys Chacin, who has not allowed a run in 10 1/3 postseason innings, and see how much they can get out of his right arm. Counsell does not shy away from unconventional pitching moves — like when he hooked starter Wade Miley after one hitter at the start of Game 5 and inserted reliever Brandon Woodruff — so there is no telling how long Chacin will go, or what the exact plan is for Hader. But Hader’s three days of rest, coupled with Chacin’s recent success and the Brewers' offensive surge in Game 6, makes it likely that Hader takes a chunk of the middle innings. If the Brewers fall behind early, Counsell could deploy him to keep the game close. If they nudge ahead, he could use Hader as a long bridge to Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress (each of whom pitched on Friday) in the back end of the bullpen.

The Dodgers, who will start rookie Walker Buehler, also have some of their best arms lined up. Buehler has been excellent all season, except for two playoff losses, and promises to keep them in the game as long as he’s on the mound. Then Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts was able to get through Game 6 without using his three best right-handed relievers in Pedro Baez, Ryan Madson and closer Kenley Jansen. He will also have two lefty starters available, ace Clayton Kershaw and the veteran Rich Hill, since all options are on the table when the season is on the line.

But Roberts still knew, once the final of Game 6 was recorded, that the Dodgers missed an opportunity to get Hader onto the mound.

“That’s their best reliever and obviously you would have liked to have kept the game close enough to have them use him tonight,” Roberts said after Game 6. “They got away tonight, because of the run differential, they didn’t have to use him. It’s just important for us for Walker to go out there and throw the ball well and for our guys to give us a lead and put the pressure on them.”

If the Dodgers can’t, and the scoreboard tilts the other way, Counsell will show just how long a leash he is willing to use with Hader. The pitcher was asked if he would push to start and, without a smile, said he does not make those types of decisions. He was asked if he would try to go as long as he possibly could and, without missing a beat, offered the same response. The numbers paint a very clear picture, showing that Hader is nearly untouchable coming off three days of rest, that the Brewers do not lose when he gets two or more innings, that he has now six postseason appearances and no one has solved him.

But these calls, the ones Hader does not get to make, are complicated. So he has boiled it into a much simpler science while everyone else wonders just how much juice is in his left arm.

There are no limits. There is just one game that the Brewers need to win.

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