NLDS Saturday Game thread | Royals Review

After an absolute barnburner of an ALDS finale last night with the Mariners finally escaping the clutches of the Detroit Tigers after 15 innings of play, the NLDS will come to a conclusion tonight. The Phillies already threw away – literally – their shot at overcoming last year’s champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. But after winning the first two games of the series, the Brewers lost the next two to the Cubs in Chicago. The series now returns to Milwaukee for its finale to see whether the Brew Crew can host the NLCS or if the Cubs must travel to Los Angeles.

By the time this article is posted, perhaps we will know who the starting pitchers are, but as I begin to write it late Saturday morning, neither team is prepared to announce who will pitch for them this evening and both pitchers are listed as TBD on MLB’s website.

Per Marquee Sports Network, the Cubs are most likely to start Shota Imanaga – their opening day starter who developed trouble with the longball down the stretch that has continued into the postseason – or Colin Rea – a veteran right-hander who has never been elite, but has pitched well lately.

As for the Brewers, well, let’s just check out this quote from MLB.com:

The Brewers have gone from removing rookie Jacob Misiorowski from the starting rotation at the end of the regular season to fielding persistent questions about whether he would even make the postseason roster to potentially needing him to help save the season.

If The Mis starts the game, it seems unlikely he’d be asked to pitch particularly deep. As a winner-takes-all match, however, that’s true for both teams. As we saw in last night’s matchup, which saw starters Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, and Jack Flaherty all take the mound in relief as each team tried desperately to stay ahead of the other. We can only hope tonight’s game is half as thrilling as that one.

The game can be viewed on TBS or HBO Max.