Pat Murphy after a Game 2 loss: “I don’t think it’s over. I don’t know why. I like this team.”

Live look at me grasping at straws after watching this on Twitter last night:

Look, let’s call a spade a spade: The Brewers got it shoved up their ass in Games 1 and 2. Blake Snell tossed 8 shutout (and could have easily thrown a complete game) in Game 1, and after giving up a a solo shot to Jackson Chourio on his first pitch of the game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game shutout on 111 pitches. The Brewers never threatened again after that leadoff homer and a 1 run deficit felt like it was two touchdowns.

Here’s what has to happen for this team to grab Game 3 on the road and make this a series: Divine intervention.

Okay aside from that, they need to somehow get back to being the Woodpeckers on offense. The whole season they thrived on battling in at-bats. Not swinging at pitches out of the zone, fouling of pitches when they got in a two-strike count, make the opposing pitcher work and work and work until they make a mistake. That’s their identity. And through two games, it’s been the opposite. Swinging early in the count, watching pitches right down the pipe, at-bats only lasting 2-3 pitches, it’s been a mess.

And look, I get it, a part of the reason it’s looked so bad is because Blake Snell and Yamamoto are REALLY F-ING GOOD. I know it’s easy to watch these games and scream at the TV and blog the next morning about how the offense looks bad and needs to figure it out. Easier said than done against a two-time Cy Young award winner (Snell), and the guy who had the lowest batting average against him in all of Major League Baseball this season (Yamamoto). The Dodgers spent over $500 MILLION dollars on those two guys alone in the last two seasons. It’s not like the Brewers are facing some #3 or #4 in the Reds rotation in the middle of June.

But if they’re going to have ANY chance of turning this around, winning two on the road and getting this series back to Milwaukee, they need to find a way to get back to that woodpecker mentality. Pitching has been fine for the most part, defense too. But you’re not going to win games in the NLCS with 5 hits and two runs COMBINED in the first two games. The only weakness this Dodger team has is its bullpen. We saw it in the 9th inning of Game 1. The Brewers need to find a way to get into that pen earlier (or, in the case of last night, at all) and see what they can do.

Also, Yeli, I love you man, but holy moly. If I see another strikeout on a pitch low and outside or a meek ground ball to second base I’m going to puke. It’s been a great bounce back season for him, but he has disappeared like a family member in a Marty McFly family picture in this series.

PS: As much as I loved this team’s offense approach this season, I did worry about how it would translate to the playoffs. When you’re playing every day for 6 months, I think you can pile up wins with that approach, just like the Brewers did. But in a short series, where you’re facing elite pitching EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, it’s much more difficult to stack together 2 or 3 hits in an inning in order to score a single run. This team needs some pop in this series.

Double PS: It’s been talked about ad nauseum already, but the baseline talent/payroll discrepancy between these two franchises is almost unfathomable. No excuses, play like a champion and all of that, but holy cow. The first three hitters in their lineup are MVP’s. Their 4th hitter is a 4-time All Star. Their 8 and 9 hitters are both 25 home run 80+RBI guys. They’ve got Cy Young awards on the mound and gold glovers in the field. I know it doesn’t ALWAYS work out where the high payroll teams rampage like this (see the Yankee and Mets), but for as good as the Brewers have been this season, you’ve got to play pretty much perfect to beat a team this stacked in a best of 7 or best of 5.

Triple PS: I know the Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers in the regular season….this ain’t the regular season. And their starting rotation had a TON of injuries when the Brewers won those games. They still count of course, but it felt like the Dodgers sort of lollygagged their way to 93 regular season wins and then focused on just getting healthy in the playoffs.