Aaron

Ashby

On the plus side, Ashby piled up four strikeouts on the afternoon, though he also issued a pair of walks. Despite the parade of baserunners against him, the only run charged to Ashby in this one came on an RBI single by Dalton Rushing in the third inning — the final hitter that he faced. The 27-year-old southpaw got four swings and misses on 50 pitches in the ballgame, registering a strong CSW of 38 percent. The expectation remains that he’ll pitch out of the Brewers’ bullpen to open the 2026 campaign.

Ashby allowed a pair of two-out singles in the first inning but battled back to get Danny Jansen to ground out to end the threat. He then allowed a single and a walk in the second inning but was able to evade damage on the strength of a caught stealing and a double play ball. The 27-year-old hurler showed diminished velocity in this one, averaging 94.9 mph on his fastball (-2.0 mph). Given their crowded starting rotation, Ashby is likely to find himself in a bullpen role to open the regular season, which saps him of most of his potential fantasy value.

It was initially thought that veteran lefty Jose Quintana would make a bulk relief appearance on Thursday night in Los Angeles, but it seems the Brewers want to save him for a critical Game 4 showdown instead. Misiorowski, who will follow lefty opener Aaron Ashby in this one, allowed one run over four innings to pick up the win in last weekend’s NLDS-clinching Game 5 win over the Cubs. The hard-throwing 23-year-old rookie righty holds a pristine 1.29 ERA over seven innings across two appearances this postseason. It’s a small sample size, but the results back up the belief many held that he would be a dominant bullpen arm if he ever made the switch to a full-time relief role.

It’ll be Ashby’s third appearance as an opener and seventh overall in the Brewers’ eight postseason games. He pitched a scoreless first inning against the Dodgers in Game 1 on Monday and then got two outs in the seventh inning of Game 2 on Tuesday. The Brewers could use Jacob Misiorowski and/or Jose Quintana behind Ashby tonight.

Ashby finished the regular season strong, but he failed to impress in four appearances against the Cubs in the NLDS, giving up four runs — three earned — and four walks in 4 2/3 innings. He’ll be tasked with facing Shohei Ohtani to start tonight and probably will remain in the game through Freddie Freeman’s spot or maybe Max Muncy’s, if the Dodgers opt to start him against the lefty opener. Tobias Myers could replace him, unless maybe the Brewers try leverage relievers first.

The runs came on Seiya Suzuki’s homer in the first. Ashby was a surprise starter tonight, getting the nod over Jose Quintana and Quinn Priester and not simply serving as an opener in front of one of those two. With his curveball mostly missing in action, he got just one missed swing on 43 pitches before being replaced by Nick Mears.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy made it official that Ashby will draw the starting assignment for what will effectively be a bullpen game after throwing 16 pitches over 1 1/3 innings during a Game 1 blowout win.

Ashby took the mound with two runners on and one out in the eighth with a four-run lead and induced a ground ball double play to keep the Pirates off the board. After just four pitches in the eighth, he finished out the game in the ninth, giving up a run on a walk, double, and a groundout before locking down his third save.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy told reporters Priester will not require a trip to the injured list but will need a few extra days off. The 24-year-old rookie is on track to take the ball on Saturday against the Blue Jays. It’ll be Aaron Ashby and newly signed veteran Erick Fedde making a bulk relief appearance on Wednesday night in his place.

Ashby came on for Quinn Priester to get the final out of the sixth inning and remained in the rest of the way, allowing just one run on one hit over his 3 1/3 innings of work. The 27-year-old southpaw walked one and struck out two in the contest. The lone blemish on his day came on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Pete Crow-Armstrong in the seventh inning. For the season, he now sports a 2.05 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and a 33/12 K/BB ratio over 30 2/3 innings in 18 appearances with the Brewers.