Not to straight-up call Herget a sacrificial lamb, but I'm guessing just on timing and looking at a potential postseason roster that Herget's role in this last week plus is to chew up as many innings as possible and provide as much rest as possible for the pitchers on this team who are going to be key to winning October baseball games for us and desperately need the rest.
Herget, Milner, and maybe even Colin Rea should be going as much as possible down the stretch because they likely won't be needed after that.