MILWAUKEE -- Pitching charted the course for the 2021 Brewers all year and figures to do the same in the postseason.

Don’t trust our analysis. Take if from Hall of Famer Robin Yount.

“This team is built for the playoffs now,” Yount said during a recent visit. “I know we have legitimate starting pitching. I know we have legitimate bullpen/closer-type people. When you have that in short series, you have the important things covered. Now you just have to get a hit here and there at the right time, or a home run, just to outscore the other team at the right time in a short series.

“This team is built much better for playoff baseball than when we relied so much on our bullpens.”

The Brewers have never had a starting rotation like this, in which Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta all spent the bulk of the year in the National League Cy Young Award debate, and Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser lurk for depth. All of those pitchers finished with an ERA better than 3.23.

Milwaukee’s relief corps, meanwhile, took a hit during the final week of the regular season when Devin Williams landed on the injured list after punching a wall. That elevates closer Josh Hader’s importance more than ever, and it means the Brewers will need contributions from other bullpen arms.

“The pitching staff is something they kind of talked about in Spring Training as being a strength for us,” said Burnes. “To be able to go out there and show that as a group is pretty awesome.”

How do the Brewers advance out of the NLDS?
Tame the Braves’ right-handed power. That’s not to diminish the threat posed by Freddie Freeman. But if Freeman does his damage, the National League Division Series could come down to containing some of the Braves’ right-handed threats, including third baseman Austin Riley -- Atlanta’s leader in home runs -- as well as outfielder and unconventional leadoff hitter Jorge Soler, outfielder Adam Duvall, shortstop Dansby Swanson and switch-hitting second baseman Ozzie Albies (a more potent hitter from the right side). If you include the time Soler spent with Kansas City and Duvall with Miami before midseason trades, then Atlanta had six hitters with 25-plus home runs. The Brewers had one.

The Brewers are well-positioned against the Braves’ righty threats. Entering the final weekend of the regular season, Milwaukee pitchers had the third-lowest wOBA against righties at .290, bested by only the Giants and Dodgers, and the second-lowest slugging percentage at .372. Only the Dodgers were better in that category.

What does the blueprint for a championship run look like?
It’s all about the Brewers’ starting pitching, which entered October extremely fresh thanks to the team’s strategy of using six starters for most of the season and building in extra rest -- a priority heading into a 162-game season after just 60 games in 2020. Woodruff, the Opening Day starter, made only two starts on what previously was considered “normal” four days of rest. Ditto for Burnes. Peralta made four such starts.

As a result, Woodruff led the Brewers with 179 1/3 innings pitched, with Burnes right behind him. Manager Craig Counsell suggested the Brewers are open to veering from that priority during the postseason to get the most from the starters, but during the regular season, the conservative approach seemed to work.

• Woodruff, Peralta unconcerned by long layoff

“It's great to look at where you are [in a season],” Counsell said at the All-Star break, “but it's more like, 'How are we going to make it through being successful for the long term?’ That's what this has all been about. This is about getting seven months' worth. And so that's been the focus since Day 1, is seven months of pitching. Every decision is kind of, you balance that -- obviously every game is important -- but I think getting them through seven months is really the most important thing to think about here.

"There's not necessarily a known right answer, that we have a book to use to figure that out, but I think what we've done so far for the starters has helped them feel fresh every time they take the mound.”

By season’s end, the Brewers were confident they’d made the right call.

“I’m not sorry we did it,” Counsell said. “I’m happy we did it.”

What is one reason for concern?
Can the bullpen hold up without Williams? Before that untimely lapse in judgment, the formula going into the postseason was a clear as six innings from the starter followed by Brad Boxberger in the seventh, Williams in the eighth and Hader in the ninth. With Williams down through the National League Championship Series at minimum, and probably for the remainder of this year, the Brewers have to rethink their plan. It could mean stretching the starters a bit more. It could mean a more prominent role for Boxberger and the next line of depth, including left-hander Brent Suter and rookie right-hander Jake Cousins, who is expected back from a biceps injury in time for the playoffs. It could also mean more innings for another rookie, left-hander Aaron Ashby, who has proven quite capable of handling Major League hitters with a power fastball and slider, but, like Cousins, lacks postseason experience.

“I don’t think this puts more on any one individual,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “I think this puts more on the entire organization and the entire pitching staff stepping up. There are a variety of different arms who can do that. I don’t think any one person is responsible for filling this.”