The Milwaukee Brewers opened the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday with a bullpen split between heavily used relievers and pitchers who had barely taken the mound in recent weeks. Milwaukee finished the regular season Sept. 27, then played four games in the next 14 days before the NLCS began. The close Division Series contests never featured a lead larger than two runs, prompting frequent use of high-leverage arms. Aaron Ashby appeared three times and threw 5⅔ innings; Abner Uribe pitched in all four games, and Trevor Megill worked in three. Six pitchers — Ashby, Uribe, Megill, Logan Henderson, Jacob Misiorowski and Robert Gasser — accounted for 25⅔ of the team’s 35 innings in the series. The limited need for lower-leverage and longer-relief options helped Milwaukee advance, but it left questions about how ready those pitchers would be if the NLCS demands deeper bullpen use. Shane Drohan and Chad Patrick had not pitched since the final day of the regular season, about two weeks before Game 1. Kyle Harrison’s last appearance was 15 days earlier. Gasser had thrown only once since Sept. 25, in Game 4 of the Division Series, after 11 days off. Dustin May had pitched just once since Sept. 26 and had not worked more than three innings in an appearance for over a month. JoJo Romero and Antonio Senzatela each had appeared twice in the 16 days since the regular-season finale. Milwaukee is not alone. The Tampa Bay Rays had played just three postseason games and entered the American League Division Series with four pitchers who had appeared once and four who had not pitched at all. The Dodgers also carried Justin Wrobleski, whose previous outing was Sept. 27, and had six other pitchers who had appeared only once during the same stretch. The situation reflects a shift in the challenges facing teams that receive a first-round bye under Major League Baseball’s 12-team playoff format, introduced in 2022. Early concerns focused on whether teams sitting out the best-of-three Wild Card round would lose sharpness. In 2026, all four bye teams won their Division Series: the Rays swept the Yankees, the Brewers and Dodgers each won in four games, and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox in five. Now the issue may be how teams keep less-used pitchers ready after short series. Milwaukee’s 2011 postseason offers a cautionary precedent: With rotation options limited late in the NLCS, the Brewers hesitated to start Chris Narveson, who had not started in nearly three weeks. St. Louis won Game 6, 12-6, to clinch the series. A long postseason series is difficult to navigate with only a handful of pitchers handling meaningful innings. If the Brewers-Dodgers matchup turns on bullpen depth, Milwaukee’s ability to bring its less-used arms into the game could matter as much as managing the relievers who carried the Division Series workload.