Whenever Aaron Ashby would make his way to the mound from the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen, opposing hitters may as well head back to the dugout and not even attempt to hit against him. That's how good Ashby has been over the course of the 2026 MLB postseason.

The Brewers may not have needed Ashby to work his usual magic for them to take a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of the World Series and close things out, but the lefty has done more than enough to put Milwaukee in a position to get over the hump.

Ashby appeared in nine of the Brewers' 13 postseason games and shut the door on every single occasion. He allowed just five hits and walked three in 18 innings pitched while striking out 20. And perhaps most importantly, opponents did not score a single run on him throughout the entire postseason, giving him a 2026 postseason ERA of 0.00, as pointed out by FOX Sports MLB on X.

There was no doubt that Ashby had grown into Brewers manager Pat Murphy's most trusted relief pitcher. If Trevor Megill ended up allowing another base hit and another run in the bottom of the ninth, he would have deployed Ashby to close things out against the Rays.

Ashby has been clutch all season long, coming in whenever the Brewers needed him to put out fires or protect leads. In the regular season, he appeared in 75 games, pitched 89.1 innings, and earned 13 wins despite making just one start, finishing the campaign with a 3.12 ERA.

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He's a true homegrown talent for the Brewers; Milwaukee drafted him in the fourth round back in 2018, and he didn't stick in the starting rotation, carving out a niche for himself as a shutdown reliever instead. It's an incredible rise from Ashby, especially when he missed the entire 2023 season due to a shoulder injury.

Everyone did their part for the Brewers in their World Series-winning run, but Ashby deserves his flowers for always rising to the occasion when the team would call upon his name.