This article is a part of Verducci’s View, a weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more.

Brewers pitcher Robert Gasser, 27, became the first rookie to start three road wins for his team in one postseason—and he did it in three of the six toughest venues for visitors: Petco Park in San Diego, Dodger Stadium and the Trop.

He’s come a long way since Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills, Calif., where his coach warned him he was too unserious about baseball, three different colleges, a trade and Tommy John surgery.

Once famously hard on himself, Gasser said of staying cool under high pressure, “Really, just try to keep it as simple and not place a high importance on it. I know it's hard to say that, and it's weird to think like that, but I've been trying to just like stay as loose and relaxed as possible and not like, put the headphones in and get in this little world. Hanging out, watching people playing NHL [video game], go outside and just try not worry about what could happen or anything. Like controlling the controllables, really.

“It's like, ‘How can I prepare myself to go pitch?’ rather than ‘What are all the possible outcomes here?’”

In college at Houston, Gasser worked with mental skills coach Brian Cain. That’s when he adopted techniques to get through stressful situations.

“He would always talk about your stoplights,” Gasser said. “Like green light, obviously, you're going well. You are just rolling. And yellow light and red light. The red light is like, go pick a spot in the stadium, like the foul pole. That's always going to be there. You can look at it, refocus, recenter.

“And then the yellow light, it's like 2–0, I'll step off, grab some rosin and get back in the mindset. So, other than that, though, nothing. I'm not crazy breathing. 

“Honestly, watching [Shane] Drohan was the craziest. Like, really? He, from day one, I don't think he's ever opened his mouth when he's pitching. He is as cool as it can be. And honestly watching him, I try to learn off that.”

The World Series Bottom Line

You can dissect the World Series every which way, but nothing stands out more than this truth: the Brewers’ staff had much better pure stuff than the Rays’ staff. Milwaukee threw the ball harder and spun the ball more and faster—and it wasn’t close. The Brewers pushed postseason velocity to a place we’ve never seen.

First, the fastball comparison, which shows a 3.1 mph difference between the two pennant winners:

Highest Fastball Velocity, World Series 2008-26

Now, the breaking pitch comparison:

A high-velocity, high-spin team, the Brewers were the best team in the regular season at depressing slug. With a shortened staff and days off, they were even tougher to slug against in the postseason (.243, the lowest in the pitch tracking era with more than two games).

In 12 postseason games the Brewers allowed just four home runs, none in the three games at Tropicana Field. The key to Milwaukee depressing slug is their heavy load of power sinkers. They allowed no home runs on 569 sinkers that averaged almost 97 mph.

Batman & Robin

One of the coolest on-field celebrations was watching DH Christian Yelich hug Hall of Famer Robin Yount. When Murphy told Yelich he was naming him captain on the final weekend of the regular season, Yelich at first had tears in his eyes and called it “my greatest night in baseball.” Then he said he would have to make sure it was okay with Yount before he accepted the honor.

Yount, Yelich, Paul Molitor and Ryan Braun are the only Brewers with 150 homers and 150 steals. Said Yelich of his embrace with Yount, “Awesome. I talked to him before the series and we had a conversation. I was like, ‘We're getting this done, man. We're going to do it. And you're going to be there with us.’

“And I want him coming in the locker room to pop champagne bottles with us. He deserves to be there. He's unbelievable, and I'm just so happy for him. I know how much he was rooting for us, and how much this means to him and everybody else. And I'm just really happy we could get it for him.”

Defeating Diaz

Before the series began, the Brewers identified Yandy Diaz, not Junior Caminero, as the most important hitter in the Tampa Bay lineup to contain. They successfully removed him from the chess board by getting him to chase.

Diaz went 3-for-20 with one RBI. The game’s best hitter against breaking pitches was 0-for-6 against spin. 

Most tellingly, Diaz, formerly known for his plate discipline, was 0-for-9 chasing pitches with a 29% chase rate, this after his first season in MLB with a worse than average chase rate.