Pat Murphy made his move in the sixth inning of Game 3, and Abner Uribe was the first reliever asked to protect a 1-0 lead the Milwaukee Brewers had built on Jackson Chourio’s leadoff home run. The call put the game’s leverage in Uribe’s hands after Robert Gasser had already worked five scoreless innings.
That is why the bullpen choice drew attention immediately. Gasser had reached 72 pitches, but he had given the Brewers exactly what they needed: a clean first five innings and a lead to hand over. Murphy still went to Uribe, who had appeared in every postseason game this year, instead of letting the starter keep stretching the margin one more inning.
Uribe did not settle the inning down. He walked Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker in succession, then got a reprieve when Dave Roberts pinch-hit Max Muncy for Andy Pages. Uribe answered by striking out Muncy, but the damage from the first two free passes had already turned a comfortable sixth-inning handoff into a mess.
The bigger issue for Milwaukee was not just the choice, but the timing of it. The Brewers had several players who looked like Game 3 heroes, including Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, Chourio and Gasser, yet Murphy still chose to go away from the starter while the heart of the Los Angeles Dodgers order was coming back around. That is the kind of move a manager can survive only if the reliever throws strikes.
Instead, the inning stayed live. DL Hall was warming in the bullpen as Shohei Ohtani stepped to the plate, which told the story of how quickly the Brewers’ plan had moved from routine to reactive. Uribe had already escaped one dangerous turn by striking out Muncy, but Milwaukee still had to find out whether the rest of the inning would hold or whether Murphy’s sixth-inning gamble would decide much more than the box score showed.
