MILWAUKEE — Christian Yelich’s strong Division Series against San Diego did not earn him a starting spot for the Brewers in Sunday’s National League Championship Series opener against the Dodgers. Milwaukee instead gave designated hitter duties to Andrew Vaughn against Los Angeles left-hander Tarik Skubal, with manager Pat Murphy framing the decision as a game-specific play for the club rather than a judgment on Yelich.
Game 1 was set for 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field, with the Brewers leaning into Vaughn’s right-handed matchup value. Vaughn finished the regular season with an .834 OPS over 331 plate appearances after Milwaukee used him selectively, and he produced a .336/.421/.517 line against left-handed pitching. His brief history against Skubal is less encouraging — a .488 OPS in 23 career plate appearances — but Murphy still saw a worthwhile fit for the opening portion of the game.
“You look at the matchups, the history and the way a pitcher might attack a hitter,” Murphy said before the first pitch. “Vaughn is a pretty good player.”
The manager’s preferred alignment, if health allowed it, would have put Vaughn at first base, Jake Bauers in right field and Yelich at DH. But Bauers has played through a fractured right toe and shin splints during the second half, leaving the outfield off the table for him at the moment. That limited Murphy’s ways to keep Yelich in the starting nine while still getting Vaughn’s bat into the lineup.
During the regular season, Murphy often found an early entry point for Yelich once an opposing left-hander left the game and the platoon situation flipped. He indicated that communication was central to this particular decision, saying a player needs to hear the plan ahead of time — a lesson he offered with a joking aside about coaching being a “real business.”
The pregame conversation also wandered from the lineup card to the sound system after a pair of young reporters from Freehold, New Jersey, brought up their hometown’s most famous musician. Murphy’s Brewers have used Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” after victories since he became manager, and the skipper explained that the song choice comes from a fandom that began four decades ago.
Murphy was in college in Florida in 1980 when he drove through heavy rain to the Hollywood Sportatorium for a Springsteen concert. He went because a girl he liked wanted to attend, making the trip in a purple Jeep with old-style sliding doors that let the rain inside. By Murphy’s account, he spent part of the ride wondering why he had agreed to go at all.
Then Springsteen took the stage on the River Tour and played for five and a half hours.
“I was amazed,” Murphy said. “It was not even about deciding whether the music was good or bad. It was incredible, and it got me interested.”
Murphy later saw Springsteen while coaching baseball at Notre Dame and again a few years ago at Wrigley Field. The connection, he said, goes beyond the records: Springsteen grew up Catholic in New Jersey, while Murphy was raised Catholic in upstate New York, and the manager feels a familiar pull in the singer’s stories and perspective.
Murphy said he has had chances to meet Springsteen backstage but has passed, hoping instead for a quieter, one-on-one conversation someday. He knows he is hardly alone in baseball’s Springsteen corner; Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Randy Johnson are fellow fans.
“I do not know music, and I cannot sing or play anything,” Murphy said. “But he speaks to me. I was not raised on that kind of music, but it is amazing.”
