Milwaukee Brewers' Wade Miley to start Game 6 after Game 5 ruse

The visiting Milwaukee Brewers removed the left-handed starter, Wade Miley after he faced one batter during Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.

Starting Miley turned out to be a ruse, as Brewers manager Craig Counsell hoped to get right-handed reliever Brandon Woodruff to face a righty-heavy Los Angeles lineup. It didn't pan out, as the Dodgers won 5-2 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

"Look, they're trying to get matchups, we're trying to get matchups," Counsell said. "They're a very tough team to get matchups against. And we weren't able to give Woody some matchups."

Having only thrown five pitches in walking leadoff man Cody Bellinger in the bottom of the first inning, Miley will get the start in Game 6 on Friday when the series returns to Milwaukee.

"Yeah, that's what we were going to do all along," Counsell said. "Wade is going to pitch Game 6. If we went down 3-1 we were considering having Wade pitch this game. But other than that, this is kind of what we decided we were going to do."

The Dodgers appeared to sense a bit of deception was approaching as manager Dave Roberts started left-handed hitters Bellinger and Max Muncy. Neither started in Game 2 against Miley. The tip-off likely came when the Brewers stayed away from Woodruff on Tuesday in a 13-inning game.

"Well, obviously our lineup today was different than the other lineup when we faced Miley, so you've got to prepare for the unexpected," Roberts said. "So I liked where we were at. ... It was very unconventional, but we were prepared for anything."

Woodruff (1-1) gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits over 5 1/3 innings. He issued one walk and struck out eight.

"I've done different roles this year, so when Craig came in and told me what the plan was, I was ready for anything," Woodruff said. "I didn't think much of it. All I knew that my job was to go in and get outs."

In Game 2, Miley went 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. He has yet to allow a run in 10 1/3 innings across his three starts this postseason.

"It's not my job to question it," Miley said of the strategy Wednesday. "We're trying to get to the World Series, and the strategic side of it can be a pretty good idea the way they use their bench over there. I was in. Everybody bought in."

(With inputs from agencies.)