Brewers Bench Captain Christian Yelich for NLCS Game 1 Against Tarik Skubal

The Milwaukee Brewers began the biggest game of their season with their captain watching it. Christian Yelich, the club’s designated hitter in all four games of the division series, was left out of the starting lineup for Game 1 of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, with Andrew Vaughn starting in his place against left-hander Tarik Skubal, USA Today reports. The move was a platoon decision with a chain of consequences behind it, and it turned the former MVP into the most dangerous pinch-hit option in either dugout.

Why did Pat Murphy bench his captain for Game 1?

Because of one pitcher and one set of career numbers. Skubal, the two-time American League Cy Young winner the Dodgers acquired at the trade deadline, is the left-hander Milwaukee least wanted its left-handed captain facing to open the series. Vaughn has five hits and a walk in 22 career at-bats against Skubal and went 8-for-25 against Los Angeles this season, while Yelich is 0-for-2 against him, USA Today reports. Murphy, the manager whose mid-game interview outburst became an NLDS story of its own, framed it before the game as a simple question of matchups and history, and said the arrangement might not last the whole game.

What made the decision harder than a normal platoon?

A broken toe in a different player’s foot. Vaughn’s usual position is first base, and playing him there would have pushed Jake Bauers toward the outfield, where Bauers made some 40 starts this season. Bauers’ broken toe makes that impossible right now, Murphy said, via USA Today, so Vaughn had to take the DH spot itself, the one Yelich occupied throughout the walk-off win that put Milwaukee in control of the Padres series. Sal Frelick paid the same platoon price in right field, where rookie Luis Lara started, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Two of Milwaukee’s NLDS regulars sat because of one left arm and one broken toe.

How big a gamble was it to sit Yelich in this form?

The contact numbers say the biggest one available to a manager in October. Yelich’s average exit velocity during the NLDS was 96.7 mph, Reviewing the Brew reports, up from 88.9 mph across his regular season, the profile of a hitter seeing the ball as well as he has all year. Skubal is also not a stranger who appeared from nowhere: he is the ace whose beer-soaked interview stole the Dodgers’ own division-series celebration before he had thrown a pitch in the round. Milwaukee’s answer to that pitcher was to hold its hottest bat back for one swing late, against a reliever of Murphy’s choosing, rather than spend three at-bats on the matchup the numbers warned against.

How did Vaughn’s first trips to the plate go?

One that justified the call, one that undercut it. Vaughn doubled with one out in the second inning and was stranded, the Brewers’ first hit off Skubal, and in the fourth he came up just after Brice Turang’s home run had tied the game 1-1 and grounded into an inning-ending double play, the Journal Sentinel’s live coverage reports. That split is the honest summary of platoon baseball: the history Murphy bought was real, and so was the cost of having a two-at-bat NLDS reserve, rather than the captain, at the plate in the game’s first big moment.

Did the benching work in Game 1? (Update, October 12)

On the scoreboard, yes, and the winning run came from the same logic. Milwaukee beat Los Angeles 2-1, its first postseason win over the Dodgers since 2018, USA Today reports. Turang’s solo homer off Skubal tied the game in the fourth, and in the fifth Mitchell walked, moved up on Pratt’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Lara’s single. Lara was the other half of the platoon call, starting in right field ahead of Frelick, so both runs were produced by players the matchup plan put on the field, while Vaughn’s double-and-double-play evening, already recorded above, stayed the decision in miniature.

The pitching held the margin the lineup only just built. Misiorowski, who had spent an NLDS off day trading a signed jersey and cleats to a fan for his own one-of-one card, allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings despite 94 pitches and three walks, the Dodgers went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and hit into three double plays, and Megill walked Tucker and pinch-hitter DePaula in the ninth before Betts flied out to end it, USA Today reports. Yelich’s saved swing was never required, which is the cleanest outcome a benching can produce, and the hardest one to repeat: Game 2 on Monday brings Yamamoto, a right-hander, and the lineup question Murphy postponed arrives with him.

What happens next in the series?

A Game 2 lineup that reveals whether this was a one-night answer or a series position. The teams play again Monday in Milwaukee, and Yelich’s return against a different starter is the expected outcome of a move Murphy described as being about this day only. The other championship series opens Monday too, with Cleveland at Tampa Bay after Jose Ramirez homered off the lowest pitch of the postseason era and Gavin Williams won a Game 5 on one day of rest. In Milwaukee, the question is narrower: a captain was benched on the first night of the NLCS, and every late inning of Game 1 was played with the crowd waiting for the swing the lineup card had saved.