Jim Reynolds heads umpire crew for Dodgers-Brewers wild card series

The umpiring assignments for the eight wild card series were announced by Major League Baseball on Tuesday. Jim Reynolds is the crew chief for the six-man crew that will work the Dodgers-Brewers series beginning Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Game 1 of the wild card series starts at 7:08 p.m. PT, and will be televised by ESPN, with Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez, Tim Kurkjian, and Alden Gonzalez on the call.

This is the 15th postseason series for Reynolds, including the 2014 and 2018 World Series. He has also worked the wild card game in 2015 and 2017.

Here are the Game 1 assignments for Dodgers-Brewers:

• Home plate: Mark Ripperger
• First base: Quinn Wolcott
• Second base: Jim Reynolds
• Third base: Alfonso Marquez
• Left field: Chris Guccione
• Right field: Lance Barrett

The daily rotation involves home plate umpire moving to right field for the next game and everyone else moving up a spot, so Wolcott will be the home plate umpire for Game 2 and Reynolds will work the plate for Game 3, if necessary.

Walker Buehler, who starts for the Dodgers in Game 1, has never pitched with Ripperger behind the plate.

Game 2 starter Clayton Kershaw is 4-1 with a 4.30 ERA in five games with Wolcott behind the plate. That includes a seven-run, five-out clunker in 2014 in Arizona, then a 1.95 ERA in the four starts since, including this September 19 at Coors Field, when Kershaw allowed only one run on four hits while striking out six, all swinging.

The pool of replay umpires that will be available for all eight wild card series consists of Ryan Blakney, Ramon De Jesus, Chad Fairchild, Greg Gibson, Nic Lentz, Chris Segal, Jansen Visconti and Chad Whitson.