MILWAUKEE — On the cusp of an NL Championship Series that features the best team (Brewers) vs. the most talented team (Dodgers), Pat Murphy and Dave Roberts engaged in a predictable but entertaining verbal battle.

Two of baseball’s best managers know each other well from their days together on the 2015 Padres’ coaching staff, and their good-natured byplay made for an amusing series-setting sideshow. (Side note: The Padres, incidentally, hired neither, letting go of Murphy as interim, and have since tried five other short-time skippers counting Mike Shildt, who stunned folks Monday by announcing he was leaving San Diego — oops!)

Murphy, late to his media session, explained that he needed extra time (and probably another off day, too!) to study how to combat such a formidable foe, then produced a stack of paperwork to prove it. Then he projected the look of an overwhelmed student needing to cram for an impossible exam.

Moments after Murphy painted a sorry picture of his outclassed, ragtag, small-market Brewers, Roberts accused him of trying to “Lou Holtz” them, using the old Notre Dame football coach’s name to describe an overselling of the opponent to try to soften up the Dodgers (who lost all six games in Milwaukee this season) and fire up his troops.