After winning a franchise-best 97 games and defeating the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series, the Milwaukee Brewers ran into a buzzsaw in the Los Angeles Dodgers during the National League Championship Series. 

The Brewers were swept; unable to combat Los Angeles in any phase of the game. In a recent appearance at the Winter Meetings, Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy — who recently won his second consecutive National League Manager of the Year Award — reflected on what went wrong in the series. 

“I mean the Dodgers were tremendous,” Murphy said. “You know,  I saw I saw Andrew Friedman and I told him I used to get two scoops at Baskin Robbins, now I'm down to one. Like, they were so good at the right time for those four games the way their starting pitchers were they didn't need a bullpen. So, we didn't get to what might have been a weakness for them.” 

After a defensive-led duel resulted in a narrow 2-1 loss for the Brewers in Game 1, they were unable to score more than one point in each of the games the rest of the way. By the end of the series, Los Angeles had outscored them, 15-4. 

“Balls we hit hard got caught, and their starting pitching was so good that, you know, that can't happen,” Murphy added. “Our pitching was okay, but they were banged up. And you know the Dodgers have seen them a lot. But to beat them six straight and then get beat...” 

Milwaukee met the Dodgers in two three-game series during the regular season and swept them both times, which magnified the difference in the playoffs. 

“I mean it's one of those things where good pitching wins most of the time. All things being equal, we played good defense; we did good things in that series. “It's magnified when Ohtani is doing what he's doing and you know their starting pitching was dominant.” 

“We got off on the wrong foot losing that first game, and then things snowballed from there,” Murphy added. “But I wasn't embarrassed, you know, I didn't think, ‘oh God we played horribly.’ The outcomes were horrible; we hadn't been swept like that. We didn't get the victories, but we played okay, but just not good enough to beat a team like that.” 

With the series behind them, it is time for a fresh start for the Brewers. 

“I think you wipe the slate clean and you come in and you talk about standards and you talk about your own expectations and how you get guys to play, you know, to their best self and not get divided attention about contracts and stuff like that. You just worry about, ‘hey, how can I become a better ball player, a better version of myself?’ And let's go compete together. Let's keep in mind what makes this really fun.” 

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