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    Brewers Tobias Myers is capping his rookie year with a strong playoff start

    Vaseline Posted on

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    When Tobias Myers returns to the clubhouse after one of his starts, he always checks his phone to see what texts his mother, Angela, has sent him.

    Myers has grown accustomed to the little speech bubbles that appear on his lock screen, short but emphatic notes sent mid-game in the thick of the action, usually around a similar theme: throwing more strikes.

    When Myers returned to his locker Thursday night at the end of Game 3 of the National League wild-card series, there were no messages from his mother.

    “She only texts me when she’s watching TV,” Myers said.

    It wasn’t just that either. Myers’ start was so impeccable that there was nothing to criticize.

    Myers took the ball for the Milwaukee Brewers in the decisive game against the New York Mets and, with his family present at American Family Field, delivered a start that, had the ninth inning gone disastrously wrong, might have been the most important performance have been the one that pushed the club to its first playoff series win in five tries.

    The right-hander delivered five shutout innings, striking out five and allowing just two hits as he passionately and easily maneuvered the lineup of the team with the highest payroll in baseball in Milwaukee’s 4-2 loss to the Mets.

    Myers’ fastball sat at 95 mph and topped out at 97 mph, a few ticks firmer than it had been all season. His slider was sharp. That, along with pinpoint accuracy, was just about all he needed to eliminate the Mets through two innings of the batting order.

    “He emptied the tank there in the fifth,” manager Pat Murphy said. “His last few outings have been a little shorter. He emptied the tank in the fifth and he was great. I am really proud of that young man, of everything he has been through.”

    It was the cherry on top of a career-changing season for Myers.

    The 26-year-old played for five organizations before joining the Brewers on a two-year minor league contract ahead of the 2023 season. He was released for a year during which he was assigned to assignment three times and was finally released.

    He spent almost all of last season at Class AA Biloxi, where he struggled mightily out of the gate but began to find his feet with his new organization late in the year. When injuries plagued the Brewers rotation early this season, it was Myers, who was off to a strong start in Class AAA Nashville, who got the call.

    Twenty-seven games and a 3.00 average in the regular season – and a stellar start to the playoffs – later, he had cemented himself as a future cornerstone of Milwaukee’s rotation.

    “Super grateful for this opportunity,” is how Myers summed up his wild ride this year. “Excited for the future.”

    Thursday night was Myers’ magnum opus, showing that he could not only repel nasty throws with his right arm but also seize the majesty of the moment with dogged determinism and a cool exterior.

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    “He’s not scared,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “He’s been through a lot in the last few years of his career, trying to figure out who he is. That is who he is. He showed that all year long. He showed that he belonged.”

    The Brewers, if they didn’t know it already, now know what they have in store for the next few years.

    It’s just a shame it didn’t end in a victory.

    Vaseline
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