But given all that, the Brewers have the bullpen to watch in this year's playoffs. They had the fifth-best ERA in the majors despite throwing the fifth-most innings. They had the third-highest strikeout percentage, behind only the Yankees and Astros. And looking at their best guys, they have the second-best ERA from their five most-used pitchers (in terms of appearances) of any team in baseball.

And they had two stars who did it in different ways. Jeremy Jeffress led the team with 73 appearances, posting a 1.29 ERA -- the lowest ERA by a pitcher with 70 appearances since Wade Davis's insane season four years ago (when he had a 1.00 ERA with 109 strikeouts in 72 innings).

Josh Hader led the team in innings by a reliever, pitching 81.1 innings in 55 appearances, and put up a 2.43 ERA. He had 143 strikeouts, second-most on the team despite being fifth in innings pitched! He struck out 46.7 percent of the batters he faced, the highest in a single season in MLB history (min. 80 innings pitched). And so far in the postseason, he's retired all seven batters he's faced, striking out four of them.

Hader led the league in relief outings of more than one inning pitched with 33 of them, and the Brewers went 29-4 in those games. Hader had a 1.71 ERA in those outings with 100 strikeouts against just 21 walks.

And both guys did it in big spots -- Jeffress and Hader were second and fifth in the majors, respectively, in Win Probability Added in relief appearances, and were the top two in the National League.