Brewers manager Pat Murphy couldn’t stop talking about anything but his own team.
During the regular season, Murphy doubted that the Dodgers could name five players on the Brewers’ roster, but he moved the goal posts for the NLCS, saying that they actually couldn’t name eight players. It was part of a weird underdog campaign Murphy has been dead-set on selling, even though Milwaukee came out of the regular season with the best record in baseball and a 6-0 record against the Dodgers.
Blake Snell and Dave Roberts haven’t bought it. Snell said, “I’m not falling for ‘Average Joes,'” and Roberts (who was on staff with the Padres alongside Murphy from 2011-2015) said, “That’s just kind of how Murph is. He tries to get into a psyche, and he’s telling his team the opposite behind closed doors. We know the act.”
There’s been another side to it too, a bizarre “kill ’em with kindness” schtick that hasn’t just applied to the Dodgers (Murphy complimented the atmosphere at Wrigley Field after the Brewers bounced the Cubs from the postseason), but his latest confusing neg of his own team involved Snell, who pitched eight one-hit innings against Milwaukee in NLCS Game 1.
“Heck, somebody said Snell makes more money than our entire pitching staff. That’s for a reason, because he’s great,” Murphy said.
Thanks for the compliment on Snell’s behalf, we guess, but maybe hype up your own guys who were down the moment this series began?
Brewers manager Pat Murphy couldn’t stop complimenting Dodgers during NLCS
If Murphy’s intention was to get the Dodgers to underestimate his team, this was an incredibly misguided way to go about that. The Dodgers saw the Brewers a fair amount during the regular season (and always lost to them) and, you know, have access to data and scouting reports. Just because there are massive payroll disparities between the two teams doesn’t mean that the Dodgers aren’t doing their homework.
There’s a difference between showing good sportsmanship and acknowledging that your competition is a good team … and doing whatever it is that Murphy did before his team was swept out of the playoffs.
Was the point to hype up his guys with a “they don’t think we can beat them” attitude? Maybe, but that’s clearly didn’t working for the Brewers, whose MLB-best campaign ended with a thud after they couldn’t get a single thing going against LA.
