One thing that a $330M payroll buys you, besides multiple MVPs in your lineup and Cy Young candidates in your rotation, is playoff experience. I think the truth is the moment was simply too big for Brice last night (as was starting a closeout game for Priester in G3). These guys don't get exposed to these moments at nearly the same rate as guys on a roster like the Dodgers. A game one in an LCS is barely more stressful than an afternoon game in July to a super team consistently in LCS’s and WS’s. Even if they fell behind 0-2 in this series I am sure they’d feel just fine heading back to LA. For the Brewers this is the biggest moment of their baseball lives and they are feeling that big time. It’s just yet another way the field is imbalanced in this sport.
You can try to spin it positively and say at least this year they are all getting a feel for this and it’ll pay off in the coming years but we felt the same way about the ’18 team with all the young and up and coming pitching we had. Never thought in a million years it would be 7 more years before we were back in the NLCS after we lost game 7. Point is when you’re a “bite at the apple” team instead of a Baseball Avengers team you simply cannot count on being back again and have to find a way to make the most of it by winning games you shouldn’t, like last night.