The bread and butter of this Milwaukee Brewers team used to be the pitching staff, but that has quickly faded.

The Brewers have struggled to get depth out of their starting pitchers for quite a while now, and that leaves the bullpen in a rough spot going into one of the biggest series of the year.

Milwaukee knows they just need to win one of three against the Chicago Cubs to clinch the season series, but that's going to be much easier said than done with the state of their bullpen.

Obviously, the Brewers have Robert Gasser, Jacob Misiorowski, and Logan Henderson to rely on, but just how many innings are they going to be able to get out of that trio?

Manager Pat Murphy had to put Abner Uribe into the game on Sunday, Sept. 6, even with the Brewers trailing by five runs.

That's not his spot, obviously, but they had no other choice, as every other pitcher in the bullpen has been overworked for quite some time.

Antonio Senzatela just threw 28 pitches, so he's unavailable for at least the first game of the series.

Grant Anderson needed 44 pitches to eat up 2.2 innings, so one would have to imagine he's off the table until the series finale.

JoJo Romero had to throw 35 pitches to record two outs, so he's now up to 48 pitches in his last two days, putting him in the same category as Anderson, where he's likely only going to be able to appear in the third and final game.

Uribe is good to go, as is Trevor Megill, but there's a chance Aaron Ashby is out the series opener.

Ashby took a rare loss on Saturday, Sept. 5, and at that point had pitched in four of the team's last five games. The question is, does he need back-to-back days off before rejoining the bullpen? 

DL Hall is fresh as he's pitched in every other game going back to Tuesday, Sept. 1. 

Chad Patrick has now had two days off after his 41-pitch performance on Friday, Sept. 4, so it's safe to assume the former starter should be good to go on Labor Day. 

Worst-case scenario, Gasser goes three innings, Patrick and Hall both go two, and then Uribe and Megill are available for the eighth and ninth. 

The Brewers are going into game one with just a few bullpen arms fully healthy, so Gasser needs to go as deep into the game as possible to set them up for success for the rest of the series.