Aaron Ashby Found Calm In The Chaos; Now He’s Making Playoff History With The Brewers

MILWAUKEE — There are times, Brewers standout reliever Aaron Ashby claims, when he loses his cool. On the golf course. Maybe if the traffic is bad enough. With the tying run 90 feet away in the World Series, though? Zen. Nursing a one-run lead in the ninth inning Saturday night with a runner on third base and facing Yandy Diaz, the hitter with the highest batting average with runners in scoring position in the sport this season, Ashby got down 3-1 in the count. Then he dropped a curveball in for a strike to even the count. Yellow towels waved as the tension rose. The Brewers’ Game 2 fate rested on Ashby’s shoulders while their typical closer, Trevor Megill, watched from the bullpen. He had been warming, but manager Pat Murphy decided to stick with Ashby, who has thrown more innings than any reliever this postseason and has not surrendered a run in any of them. Ashby didn’t break a sweat. He snapped off another curveball, this time well below the zone. Díaz thought he checked his swing. Catcher William Contreras asked for help. First base umpire James Hoye ruled that Díaz went around. Inside American Family Field, pandemonium ensued. Diaz threw his arms in the air in disgust while 43,245 fans roared euphorically, their team now two wins away from their first-ever World Series championship. Contreras pumped his fist emphatically and slammed his mitt in glee. Ashby, meanwhile, calmly walked over to his catcher like he had just wrapped up a spring training game. Zen. “I don’t think there’s words for it,” Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers told me, unable to describe what Ashby is doing. “He’s on another planet. He’s so calm out there. There’s such a confidence right now. It’s contagious.” Ashby has now thrown 15.2 scoreless innings with three saves this October, the last of which concluded yet another four-run comeback by these unrelenting Brewers. He is the star of October’s best bullpen and pitching like the best arm left in these playoffs. Yet he didn’t even crack a full smile Saturday night until minutes after he wrapped up his latest pristine performance, when fellow reliever Abner Uribe started shaking him as he neared the first-base line before retreating to the dugout. “It’s been incredible,” Murphy said. “He does what it takes. It’s unconventional. Multiple innings in relief. It’s Goose Gossage-like.” Only, what Ashby has done has now surpassed that level. Gossage is the only reliever to finish a postseason with no runs allowed in at least 14 innings of work. He threw 14.1 scoreless innings of relief in the 1981 postseason. If the playoffs ended today, Ashby would have the new record. His 15.2 scoreless innings are the second-most ever by a reliever to begin a postseason behind Andrew Miller’s 16 in 2016 for Cleveland. Miller’s streak eventually broke, when he allowed runs in each of his final two appearances in the World Series. Ashby’s streak continues on. “He’s my lockermate, good buddy,” Brandon Woodruff, the longest-tenured Brewers pitcher, told me. “He’s worked a lot on his mental game. It’s been huge for him. In those moments, I think he excels.” It had not always been that way. Just two years ago, Ashby had an 8.04 ERA at Triple-A. Last year, he began the full-time transition into a multi-inning relief weapon, registering a 2.16 ERA in 66.2 innings over 43 appearances. But he was never content with his work in the playoffs. In Game 4 of the 2021 NLDS, he surrendered two runs in the final game of the Brewers’ season. In his lone appearance of the 2024 postseason, he allowed all five hitters he faced in the first game of the wild-card series to reach base. Last October, he had a 5.40 ERA in seven playoff appearances. In his final outing, he allowed three of the four hitters he faced to reach base in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Dodgers. He thought the game was speeding up on him. That he was gripping the ball too tight to try to make something happen. “Trying to do way too much, trying to meet the moment, meet the crowd, whatever it may be instead of just sinking, I guess,” Ashby told me. “Sinking to the level of preparation instead of maybe rising to the occasion. It’s an old saying my college coach used to say.” So he decided to make a change, to try to learn from those failures. He thought about what his dad told him growing up, about the importance of composure. A religious man, Ashby and his wife also put their faith in a higher power. He said they started to pray that he would be calmer in those situations. “That’s the only thing that I’ve changed,” Ashby claimed. Now, when pressure situations arrive, he takes a deep breath, picks his leg up and delivers the pitch, trusting that it’s going to work. He believes it is going to work. “It continues to feel calm out there, peaceful,” Ashby told me. “I’m just comfortable throwing the baseball.” Ashby has gone multiple innings in seven of his eight appearances this postseason, surrendering just five hits with three walks and 17 strikeouts. Zen. “He’s worked hard on that, and I know that,” Woodruff said, “so when he gets thrown in those positions, it’s pretty cool.” On Saturday, Ashby needed only nine pitches to record the final two outs of the eighth. He returned for the ninth, without thinking anything of it. Jonny DeLuca greeted him with a leadoff double. With lefty Victor Mesa Jr. on deck, Ashby assumed he was staying in. “I just expect to get the next guy until Murph walks out,” he said. Three batters later, the game was over. Ashby recorded five outs in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday, then another five outs one day later. He allowed only one of the 11 batters he faced in that span to reach. “He’s been like this all year, where he can throw every day, it seems like,” Woodruff said. “I feel good,” Ashby confirmed. “I do. I’ve got a great routine in the training room postgame.” The Brewers’ eight saves are the most by any team in a single postseason, a telling sign both of the close games they constantly play and their ability to pull them out with a bullpen that is now 8-1 with a 1.24 ERA this postseason, led by a lefty in Ashby who has found calm amid the chaos. At least on the baseball field, he looks unflappable. “We’ve been together for three years now, so I know how to push his buttons a little bit if I want to,” Bauers told me with a grin. “But those are state secrets. I don’t know if I can share those.”