Still, Counsell knows he cannot manage from April through August the way he did in September (with expanded rosters) and October (with regular off-days). Even so, no Brewer has thrown a complete game since Jimmy Nelson in June 2017 or worked 200 innings in a season since Yovani Gallardo in 2012.

“Great starting pitchers are still the manager’s best friend,” said Counsell, though he added that his job is simply to find the best way to get 27 outs. “It’s your personnel: Who are your players and what are they good at? How do they connect to each other?”

The Brewers’ only other playoff teams since 1982 included former Cy Young Award winners they had rented through trades: C. C. Sabathia in 2008 and Zack Greinke in 2011. Last year’s ace, Jhoulys Chacin, joined Milwaukee in the off-season on a bargain contract (two years, $15.5 million), and thrived by following the Brewers’ suggestion to throw more sliders. Chacin, who was 15-8, was the only Brewer to work the required 162 innings to qualify for the E.R.A. title.

In relying mostly on Chacin and the now-departed Wade Miley as postseason starters — Miley faced just one batter as a decoy in Game 5 against the Dodgers — Counsell bypassed some mainstays who helped the Brewers get there. Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Junior Guerra combined for 141 starts the last two seasons but were afterthoughts in the playoffs.

“I tried to be the best teammate I could, but I knew I wasn’t going to be on the roster,” said Anderson, who was 9-8 with a 3.93 E.R.A. “I’m more of an optimistic person than a pessimistic person, that’s my personality, but when you get down to it, I wanted to be out there as much as anybody.

“Being here since 2016, seeing that rebuilding process expedited faster than people thought — yeah, it was hard.”