MILWAUKEE -- Gio Gonzalez will start for the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
The Brewers have chosen Wade Miley to start in Game 2 on Saturday, meaning that Milwaukee will open up the NLCS with two straight lefties. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin will go in Game 3 on Monday in Los Angeles.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell announced his rotation on Thursday.
"With Gio, we just like the matchup," Counsell said. "We like the matchup against their lineup. Look, it's no secret that we're going to use our pitching a little differently than the traditionalists would like. And so for us the first matchup that we liked was Gio on the mound. We're asking Gio to go out there and get a bunch of outs. How many? We'll just see how it goes."
Said Gonzalez: "I want to be a part of it any way possible. And I think that whatever Counsell needs me to do to pitch and get outs, I want to be there, no matter how many innings I gotta go. And again, with this bullpen, it makes it really easy to kind of like say, 'All right, we're all right. We're good to go.' "
The Dodgers already have picked ace left-hander Clayton Kershaw as their starter for the opener, but they have yet to announce the rest of their rotation.
Gonzalez was 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA in five starts for the Brewers after being acquired in a deal with the Washington Nationals.
"I just want to pitch," Gonzalez said when asked about pitching in the NLCS after being traded from a team that wasn't in the playoffs. "I'm grateful I get to pitch another postseason game and with another team now. Again, I was almost on my way home the end of September. So to sit here, and I'm pitching Game 1 of the second round, I think that's -- it's pretty remarkable, pretty incredible, and hopefully I get to tell my kids about this one day."
Information from ESPN's Bradford Doolittle and The Associated Press was used in this report.