Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty ImagesDavid SchoenfieldOct 15, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseCovers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsThe theme of the 2026 playoffs: unhittable fastballs, unhittable changeups, unhittable sliders and sweepers and cutters and knuckle-curveballs and split-fingered fastballs. Pitchers are dominating this October like we haven’t seen in decades, with batters hitting just .227 and on pace for the lowest OPS since the 1983 postseason.Of the 30 games played, a team has scored two runs or fewer 19 times — or 31% of all team games played. Every lead change, and there haven’t been many of them, feels like a little miracle. The close, mostly low-scoring games have created a tense postseason but not necessarily the most exciting one (and last year’s playoffs are a tough act to follow anyway).While we’re still in the early stages of the league championship series — about halfway through the postseason — let’s take stock of what has happened so far, looking at the teams still alive and some of those that have been eliminated.The Milwaukee Brewers look unbeatable thanks to their bullpenVerdict: Real Milwaukee’s bullpen had allowed three earned runs in 32⅔ innings, surrendering a batting average of .139.
The bullpen outdueled San Diego’s vaunted pen in the NLDS. It has also twice rescued Jacob Misiorowski, who didn’t last five innings in either of his postseason starts. It pitched 4⅔ scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLCS and then finished Game 2 with five perfect innings. Manager Pat Murphy has used seven different relievers, but two have stood out:• Abner Uribe throws a 99-mph sinker and an 88-mph slider.
They look like the same pitch nearing home plate, but then the sinker often dives in on right-handed batters and the slider darts away. Pick your poison. Both pitches induce a high rate of ground balls. He’s often brought in to face the toughest part of an opponent’s lineup.
He pitched a scoreless sixth inning against the Dodgers in Game 1 and got four outs in Game 2, though he did give up two runs and walked three in Game 3.• Aaron Ashby is a former starter who didn’t pitch in the majors in 2023 because of shoulder surgery but eventually returned as a top reliever the past two seasons. The lefty’s fastball averages 97.7 mph, and he has a starter’s repertoire with four different pitches. He’s Murphy’s secret weapon of sorts, as his background means he can comfortably go multiple innings — he was second among relievers in innings pitched in the regular season. He had a three-inning outing against the San Diego Padres and then got 11 outs in the first two games of the NLCS, earning the save in Game 2.The Brewers have constructed elite bullpens for years now, and the common denominator for 2026: Throw hard.
Their relievers have averaged 98 mph with their fastballs in the postseason (they were fourth in the regular season, averaging 95.9 mph).Two notes here. Across the entire postseason landscape, including starting pitchers, the average fastball has clocked in at 96.1 mph, continuing the increases we’ve seen since pitch tracking began in 2008. And those fastballs have been harder than ever to do damage on:The second note is that a hot bullpen has become a vital ingredient to winning in the playoffs this decade. The results for Milwaukee’s bullpen so far are reminiscent of the Houston Astros’ dominant postseason performance in 2022, when their relievers posted a 0.83 ERA in 54⅓ innings, allowing a .126 average.
Atlanta’s bullpen got hot in 2021 (closer Will Smith, after a shaky regular season, tossed 11 scoreless innings with six saves) and the Dodgers’ pen carried the team to the 2024 title when its rotation was shaky.This is a significant change from the end of the 2010s, when deep rotations created the path to championships. When the Chicago Cubs won Game 7 in 2016, then-manager Joe Maddon was determined to use just three pitchers, including starter Jon Lester in relief; only when the game went into the 10th inning did Maddon use his second and third relief pitchers. In 2017, Houston skipper A.J. Hinch dumped closer Ken Giles and used starting pitchers in relief (Charlie Morton pitched the final four innings of Game 7 of the World Series).
In 2018, Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora had five different pitchers who both started and relieved in a game. The 2019 Washington Nationals were 29th in the majors in bullpen ERA but won behind Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin (who pitched three innings in relief in Game 7 of the World Series).This year’s Brewers showcase what a dominant bullpen can do: Misiorowski and Logan Henderson, their top two starters, have lasted just 17⅓ innings in their four starts, but the Brewers won all four games.The Los Angeles Dodgers’ dynasty is teeteringVerdict: Not realPlease, let’s not go there just yet, even if they do have their backs against the wall in their quest to become the first NL team to win three consecutive World Series. If anything, the early results of this NLCS have shown how difficult it is to win in the postseason and to do it three years in a row — and, really, how fortunate the Dodgers were to win the past two World Series.Think of some of what went right for Los Angeles over the past two postseasons: shutting out the Padres for two straight games to win the 2024 NLDS, with the Mets upsetting the Phillies in the other series so the Dodgers faced an easier opponent in the NLCS; beating the Phillies last year on a pitcher throwing error; and Will Klein’s Herculean, out-of-nowhere relief outing in the 2026 World Series, not to mention Miguel Rojas’ unlikely home run and Isiah Kiner-Falefa not getting a bigger lead off third base.Last year, the Dodgers’ slow play of their rotation worked perfectly: Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow were all healthy and rolling in October alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto. This year, Ohtani can’t pitch and Snell and Glasnow scuffled in their NLDS starts.Ohtani’s injury and offensive struggles also highlight how the Dodgers have been hemorrhaging 25 runs or so a year on offense since 2023: from 906 runs to 842 to 825 to 801.
They can no longer count on superstar-level production from Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts (who, by the way, is on a 30-game homerless streak in the postseason). That average postseason fastball velocity of 96.1 mph that we mentioned? The Dodgers were 11th in the regular season in OPS against fastballs of 96-plus mph. A power staff, such as the one Milwaukee possesses, is the way to beat the Dodgers.Of course, the Dodgers still won 100 games this season.
They also have Josue De Paula, who looks like Juan Soto-Lite at the plate with his elite plate discipline and is ready to join the lineup in 2027, although they’ll have to figure out how to squeeze him into the outfield with Teoscar Hernandez and Kyle Tucker still under contract. And it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Dodgers find a way to sign Tarik Skubal, even with the uncertainty over the labor situation.The organization remains strong, and it has a highly-regarded farm system beyond De Paula. But after three losses of the NLCS, the Dodgers look older and more vulnerable than at any point this decade.Chase DeLauter is the breakout star of this postseasonVerdict: RealDeLauter’s rookie season flew under the radar, but the 2022 first-round pick hit .287/.363/.457 with 16 home runs in 133 games. He’s hitting .346/.452/.538 with a home run, two doubles and four RBIs in seven games for the Cleveland Guardians in the postseason.But here’s the stat that stands out — five walks and one strikeout.
He has had some veteran at-bats: two seven-pitch walks against Freddy Peralta in Game 2, an RBI double off Ian Seymour in a left-on-left matchup later in that game, a first-pitch home run to the opposite field off Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 and a first-pitch double off Tyler Wells in the
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