The Dodgers found a much-needed answer on Friday night, and it came at the right time. After dropping the opener Thursday, Los Angeles beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 at Dodger Stadium and finally put an end to a club-record five-game losing streak against Milwaukee at home.
It also gave the Dodgers something they had not had in a while against the Brewers: a series win. Los Angeles took two of three from Milwaukee at American Family Field from May 22-24, and that marked the club’s first series victory over the Brew Crew since July 2024. The Dodgers are now 51-38 all-time against the Brewers at Dodger Stadium.
The win came with the Dodgers still hovering around .500 since the All-Star break, as they’ve gone 13-13 in that stretch.
Offensively, it wasn’t a clean night, but the Dodgers did just enough damage with the long ball. They opened the scoring with three straight one-out singles from Andy Pages, Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts, but the inning stopped there. That kind of missed opportunity has been a familiar theme for this lineup.
Pages gave them the lead again in the fifth with his 20th homer of the season, a solo shot that broke a 1-1 tie. Tommy Edman followed with another solo blast in the sixth to create some separation.
The Dodgers finished with eight hits, but they went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the real backbone of the night. He turned in six innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out nine. It was his 16th straight start in which he recorded at least one out in the sixth inning, and the 19th time in 22 starts this year that he finished at least six innings.
Milwaukee’s only run came in the fifth, when Luis Lara doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on a single and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Yamamoto’s outing lowered his season ERA to 2.60 across 145.1 innings.
The bullpen had a mixed finish, but it was better than the night before. Evan Phillips threw a perfect seventh after giving up three runs in his previous outing.
Edwin Díaz was back in the ninth one day after blowing his third save in four chances. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts kept him in the closer role despite Díaz carrying an 11.57 ERA this season.
Díaz ran into trouble by hitting a batter and walking one to bring the tying runs on base. Edman then made a strong play to save a run and record the second out. Díaz later issued another walk to load the bases, but he finished the job by getting a ground ball to shortstop to end it.
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