Sonoma County native Jason Lane enjoying view of baseball's postseason as Brewers assistant

Jason Lane can get inside a hitter’s mind and, oddly, also a pitcher’s.

The Sonoma County native and

Milwaukee Brewers assistant hitting coach hopes that unique perspective can help take his team to victory over the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and into the World Series.

Lane, 41, a product of El Molino High School and Santa Rosa Junior College, played most of his big-league career as an outfielder, but converted to a pitcher in his last three years of pro ball.

It’s that unusual combination of experience that he has tried to impart to the Brewers, who rode a strong wave of momentum into the postseason but now trail the Dodgers 3-2 in the best-of-seven NLCS as it heads back to Milwaukee.

Reached by telephone as the Brewers challenged for their first NL pennant since 1982, Lane was soaking in the “wild atmosphere” that is the postseason.

“The last 10 days, two weeks, winning the tiebreaker in game 163 against the Cubs, winning the division, it’s like we’ve been playing in the playoffs the whole month,” he said.

The Brewers won 12 consecutive games from late in the regular season through the playoffs until Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Dodgers, but rebounded with a 4-0 win Monday to lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. The Dodgers took Game 5 on Wednesday by a 5-2 score.

In addition to offering hitting and pitching advice, Lane can share his postseason experience as well, having played in the NLCS and World Series with Houston in 2004 and 2005.

“It’s a lot tougher as a coach, so far,” he said. “As a coach, you care the same, you have the same buy-in with the group, people you’ve been with all year, the ups and downs. But you don’t have direct impact on the team like players.

“Your impact is over the whole year, then you sit and watch the guys and hope they do well. But it’s just as tense as when you’re a player.”

Lane has been able to capitalize on sharing the mental aspect of hitting, from both sides.

“They think I have value to help,” he said of the Brewers, who gave him his first pro coaching gig when he was just barely out of his playing days. “Also, having been a pitcher, it opened up a whole side as a hitting coach for me.”

He explains it like this: If the hitter really knew what the pitcher was thinking, he might approach a situation differently; if the pitcher really knew what the batter was thinking, he would do the same.

“But neither knows, so it’s given me perspective,” he said. “Knowing the insecurities and fears on both sides has helped me tremendously.”

As a minor league pitcher his last couple of years, he sat in the bullpen with pitchers and would listen to them dissect what they were certain a batter was thinking in a particular situation.

“And I would just laugh, because as a hitter, I was like, ‘No hitter was ever thinking that,’” he said.

One surprising performance Lane won’t take any glory for is how well Brewers pitchers have hit this series. In Game 1, starter Brandon Woodruff homered - off Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, no less. In Game 2, Wade Miley went 2-for-2 with an opposite-field double off Hyun-jin Ryu.

“I can’t take credit for the results they have had. They have been impressive and they work at it in the cages, but mainly with our bullpen catcher throwing to them,” he said.

Lane was pitching for the San Diego Padres’ Triple-A team in 2015 when he began to think about coaching. Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy, whom Lane knew when he played at USC and Murphy was the head coach at Arizona State University and later when Lane was in the Padres’ minor league system, asked him if he was interested in coaching with Milwaukee.

“I was still planning on playing in 2016, but then I wondered, ‘Would this job be here later?’ It’s here now,” he recalled.

He now works under head hitting coach Darnell Coles, whom he said has been a great mentor. He may want to manage someday.

But for now, he’s enjoying the ride with the Brewers: “I’m 41 and haven’t had to get a real job yet.”

The team relishes the underdog narrative vs. the big-city, well-financed, perennially successful Dodgers.

“We’re a small-market team. Milwaukee is a blue collar,” he said. “The guys like that role. And now other parts of the country get to see us play.”

Though he’s traveled around the world for baseball, Lane still spends the offseason in Santa Rosa and has family here. He has little doubt who the local, mostly San Francisco Giants fans are supporting in the NL series.

“I’m hoping Sonoma County will be rooting for the Brew Crew,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.