Last minute Brewers Changes, News and Reports ahead of Game 2 | Brewers News

This is a massive turning point for the Milwaukee Brewers. After taking game one in yesterday's contest, we see game two face off between Logan Henderson and Michael King. What does Pat Murphy have in store? Well, hopefully a 2-0 series lead. We saw the Brewers take a 2-0 series lead in the NLDS last season, then drop the next two and luckily close it out in five games. It is very important to get to as big of a lead as you can, which sounds obvious. We're going to talk about all that and more on today's episode of Brewers Digest. I'm your host, Taylor Brettel, and I got you covered on everything you need to know about the Milwaukee Brewers. Getting a win with Jacob Mizorowski is huge. The Brewers fell down 0-1 using all their top bullpen arms and using Jacob Mizorowski. That would be a tough hole to climb out of, so it's very nice that the Brewers are in this position. Both lineups have been announced for the San Diego Padres, for the Milwaukee Brewers. Let's take a look at the Brewers lineup first. This is what they're putting out there today against Michael King. It's a little bit different than yesterday. Some more lefties are in this one with King being a righty. Jackson Churio gets the leadoff duties. Pat Murphy talked about it, which I agree with. You've got to get that guy up to the plate as much as you can. Now, I know he's a power hitter. If runners are on, he could be driving in more, but this is a guy that is the best hitter on the team. You need him first because he can get on base more than anyone else. You've got Bryce Turang playing second base, batting left. One of those lefties in there. Another lefty, Jake Bowers, at first base. Then you go to William Contreras in the four spot, who had a huge homer in yesterday's win. Garrett Mitchell is in there, followed by Christian Yellich. So, two more lefties. You get a third lefty with Sal Freelick. Switch it back to the right side. Cooper Pratt really struggled in yesterday's contest, but he's still in there. Joey Ortiz struggled as well, but kind of interesting that Pratt is in there. Hopefully, he gets a little bit more adjusted to postseason baseball. And then you flip it back to the left side. David Hamilton gets the start at third base. So, it'll be interesting to see how that all works out. Could we see a possible bunt from David Hamilton to get on to go to the top of the order for Churio? I wouldn't scratch that out of a possibility, but that's what the Brewers got for their starting lineup. And the pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers will be Logan Henderson. Let's do a preview on Henderson. What have we seen this season? What could we see against the San Diego Padres? And what did we see against him last time he played at the San Diego Padres? Logan Henderson has been the Dark Horse MVP of this team. Obviously, you got to give that to Jacob Mizorowski, but the Brewers do not get to 103 wins without Logan Henderson. He is the second best pitcher on this by far. Clearly, he has that starting pitcher two spot, and we have seen a lot from him. Let's take a look at the stat cast right here. What does Logan Henderson throw a lot? Well, a four-seam fastball, just like Jacob Mizorowski. I'll flash this on the full screen so you can take it all in. He throws the four-seam fastball 46% of the time, but you notice the difference here. It's not 103 miles an hour. It's 93. Could the Padres be able to sit on this a little bit easier? I would definitely say so. He also pairs that, though, with a changeup that is thrown 35% of the time, a cutter at 15%, and a sweeper at 3%. The thing that's been so impressive about Logan Henderson, he has a 2.47 ERA. He's gone 11-3 this season with a .84 whip, really throwing like two, kind of three, kind of four pitches. It's incredible how he's doing it. Kind of Kyle Harrison vibes at the start of the season, where you see two pitches, you're like, how is he doing this? And Logan Henderson has luckily done that for this full season. But we saw him face the Padres last time. Let's take a look at his game log, which literally is only one game in his MLB career going against the San Diego Padres. And this is what he did right here. He went six into third innings, gave up three runs, struck out seven, gave up two homers amongst those three runs, five hits, and a walk. This is going to be something to keep an eye on. This was during that three-game series where the Brewers got swept by the Padres in San Diego, so maybe Logan Henderson will be a little more comfortable, a little bit adjusted at home. But the Padres hit Logan Henderson pretty well. I mean, three runs through six and a third is not bad at all, but two long balls, that could be a little bit of a concern. Now, it is pretty ironic that one of the long balls that was hit against Logan Henderson was Ty France, because that's going to be a guy that is probably going to be swinging out of his shoes today. We're going to take a look at what this game was last time Logan Henderson was on the mound. A 3-2 win for San Diego. Last time, we looked at another game between the Padres and the Brewers. When Miz was on the mound, that was a 3-1 win for San Diego, so this could be another low-scoring contest. But you notice right here in this one, again, Ty France had a homer and Jake Cronenworth also had a home run. So, how did they hit off of Logan Henderson so effectively? Well, they sat on the change-up, which is what we saw yesterday against Jacob Mizorowski. More in the fact of, just don't try to go for the fastball, foul off the fastballs, and try to hit one of the other pitches in play. Now, again, Logan Henderson doesn't throw 103, so it could be a little bit of a different strategy, but this is what the Padres did. So, Ty France did have one of those homers the last time these two teams faced. This one, this one only had 18. This was an absolute rope at 106.5 miles an hour on a liner to left field. But you see right here, cutter, cutter, change-up, forcing, forcing. He went back to the change-up, and that is what was the dangerous pitch. Only sits around 83 miles an hour. Ty France was one of those homers, and Jackson Merrill was the other. You see pretty similar right here. Forcing, forcing, goes to that change-up, and the Padres are sitting on it. They're waiting for it. Could they possibly be doing this today? I wouldn't be shocked at all. Again, Logan Henderson, 75% of the time, throws a four-seamer or a change-up, so they could have the same strategy. Foul off a lot, get the starter out of there early, and attack on the slower pitches. Those are easier to track down. I mean, really impressive, the Padres' strategy yesterday to get Miz out of that game in four innings. It was unfortunate that they weren't able to drive in any runners. That was obviously extremely helpful on why the Brewers won that game. The Padres left, I believe, 12 runners stranded, which is why it makes it so big that the Brewers are able to win this one. Let's take a look at what the Padres have in their lineup. They also announced theirs, and this is what was posted on X from the Padres' social media team. Fernando Tatis Jr. will be leading off and playing right field. Then it'll be followed up with the left fielder in Harris, and then back to Manny Machado, and then Ty France, and then Jackson Merrill. I believe that was the one through five yesterday. That looks very, very identical. Then you have Ethan Salas in there, who is the designated hitter. I was seeing some Padres fans are surprised that Gavin Sheets isn't in there, because Sheets had a big postseason homer against the Chicago Cubs earlier. He is also a lefty, so you have that lefty-righty advantage. That's interesting to see how that plays out. Xander Bogarts was super locked in yesterday. He had some good plate appearances. He is batting seventh. Then you got Campusano, who will be doing the catching duties. Jake Cronenworth, who I think is a very dangerous bat to have in the ninth spot, will round out the bottom of the order. You see the pitcher after that? That is Michael King. Let's talk about Michael King a little bit. We did in a previous episode, in case he was ready for a quick turnaround, but the Padres will be saving him for this game. Michael King is a guy that has had great postseason success. We saw him go seven innings of scoreless baseball, which only one hit allowed within that, which went against Nico Horner. That's what he did against the Chicago Cubs. This is a guy that is very dangerous. What has he done against the Brewers in his career? Well, there is his game log. It extends with one outing from his time at the Yankees, and then three at this time with the San Diego Padres. You see his most recent one coming this year in 2026. This was early in May. He went five and two-thirds innings, did not allow a homer, but did allow one run, gave up six hits, struck out five, and walked two batters. So, very solid from him. I think any Padres fan would gladly take five and two-thirds innings and one run of baseball. So, that is what we're going to see from Michael King. He's dangerous. The Brewers got to get those bats a little bit more awake. I'm very satisfied with three runs, if that's all you need to win, but the Brewers doing it via the long ball is not usually how the Brewers win games. They didn't really have many collected hits back-to-back-to-back, so maybe we see a little bit more of that today, but that brings the question that I want to ask you guys. Who needs to be the x-factor in today's game for the Brewers? Does it need to be Logan Henderson? Does it need to be the bullpen? Or does it need to be the bats? Obviously, all three of these got to be great if you want to win the game. My opinion, I would say Logan Henderson because the Brewers use so many bullpen arms. They even use the guys that can go longer like Aaron Ashby and Adele Hall. The bullpen could be pretty thin, so if the Padres have that smart strategy of getting the pitch count up against the starting pitcher, if Logan Henderson has to be out of this game by the fourth inning, I really wonder how the bullpen will be controlled. Will we see a Chad Patrick? Will they try to put in Harrison if they want to flip to a lefty? I think Logan Henderson and just being able to go six innings in this, that would be all I could ask for, so it'll be interesting to see where the Brewers go from there, but that is the question that I will sit for you guys again to take a look at the Brewers lineup just once more. This is what they're putting out there because of Michael King being a righty. It is a lefty heavy lineup. We could see Andrew Vaughn come off the bench like we did yesterday, so don't be surprised if anything like that occurs, but we also have news on game three before I wrap up this episode on who will be the starter for that one. Adam McAlvey had it first. He says Dustin May will start game three for the Brewers besides his postseason experience and success this year against the Padres. It says we brought him in to do that. That's what Pat Murphy said. I know a lot of people are pretty 50-50 on how they feel about Dustin May, and I totally get it, especially on the road. It could be very tough. Dustin May has absolutely struggled to end the year, but hoping that the Brewers and Logan Henderson are able to go up 2-0 in this series, so maybe the pressure is a little bit less off of May because playing in San Diego, I mean that is an insane environment that the Brewers will have to go into, but you guys let me know who do you think the X Factor needs to be for this contest, and what is your score prediction? I think it's going to be pretty low again. I believe the roof is open today, so that'll obviously be a big storyline as well. Hoping the Brewers are able to go up 2-0 in this series, and I'll be talking to you guys after the game about how the crew can shut them down 3-0, but we got to take it one game at a time as always. Hoping Logan Henderson has it dialed in. Let's go, crew. I'll talk to you guys after this afternoon's