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American Family Field (MILWAUKEE) – There are times, Brewers standout reliever Aaron Ashby claims, when he loses his cool. On the golf course. Maybe if the traffic is bad enough.
What about with the tying run 90 feet away in the World Series, though?
Zen.
Nursing a one-run lead in the ninth inning Saturday night with a runner on third base and facing Yandy Diaz, the hitter with the highest batting average with runners in scoring position in the sport this season, Ashby got down 3-1 in the count. Then he dropped a curveball in for a strike to even the count.
Yellow towels waved as the tension rose. The Brewers’ Game 2 fate rested on Ashby’s shoulders while their typical closer, Trevor Megill, watched from the bullpen. He had been warming up, but manager Pat Murphy decided to stick with Ashby, who has thrown more innings than any reliever this postseason and has not surrendered a run in any of them.
Ashby didn’t break a sweat.
Brewers catcher William Contreras goes to celebrate with pitcher Aaron Ashby after the game-ending strikeout of Rays DH Yandy Diaz. (Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
He snapped off another curveball, this time well below the zone. Díaz thought he checked his swing. Catcher William Contreras asked for help. First-base umpire James Hoye ruled that Díaz went around.
Inside American Family Field, pandemonium ensued. Diaz threw his arms in the air in disgust while 43,245 fans roared euphorically, their team now two wins away from their first-ever World Series championship. Contreras pumped his fist emphatically and slammed his mitt in glee.
Ashby, meanwhile, calmly walked over to his catcher as if he had just wrapped up a spring training game.
Zen.
“I don’t think there’s words for it,” Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers told me. “He’s on another planet. He’s so calm out there. There’s such a confidence right now. It’s contagious.”
Ashby has now thrown 15 2/3 scoreless innings with three saves this October, the last of which concluded yet another four-run comeback by these unrelenting Brewers.
He is the star of October’s best bullpen and pitching like the best arm left in these playoffs.
Yet he didn’t even crack a full smile Saturday night until minutes after he wrapped up his latest pristine performance, when fellow reliever Abner Uribe started shaking him as he neared the first-base line before retreating to the dugout.
“It’s been incredible,” Murphy said. “He does what it takes. It’s unconventional. Multiple innings in relief. It’s Goose Gossage-like.”
(Photo by Geoff Stellfox/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Only what Ashby has done has now surpassed that level.
Gossage is the only reliever to finish a postseason with no runs allowed in at least 14 innings of work. He threw 14 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in the 1981 postseason. If the playoffs ended today, Ashby would have a new record. His 15 2/3 scoreless innings are the second-most ever by a reliever to begin a postseason, only behind Andrew Miller’s 16 in 2016 for Cleveland. Miller’s streak eventually broke when he allowed runs in each of his final two appearances in the World Series.
Ashby’s streak continues on.
“He’s my lockermate, good buddy,” Brandon Woodruff, the longest-tenured Brewers pitcher, told me. “He’s worked a lot on his mental game. It’s been huge for him.
“In those moments, I think he excels.”
