Shohei Ohtani finally broke through, but the Milwaukee Brewers never lost their grip on the NLCS.
Ohtani launched his first home run in 58 days on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, giving the Dodgers an early jolt and a 4-0 lead in Game 4. It barely mattered. Milwaukee kept answering, kept surviving, and kept pulling the game back until a 6-4 win completed a sweep and sent the Brewers to the World Series for the first time since 1982 - and their first trip to the Fall Classic as a National League team.
The Dodgers made the move that had been building for days, slotting Ohtani back into the leadoff spot for the first time since September 27. He had been moved all over the order this postseason - second, fourth, fifth and even sixth - but manager Dave Roberts liked what he saw and went back to the familiar setup.
“Just seeing the work the last couple days, I like where his head is at,” Roberts said before Game 4. “I liked the at-bats yesterday, and I felt that trying to shake it up a little bit.”
That decision paid off immediately. In the second inning, with two runners on, Ohtani crushed a cutter from former teammate Dustin May for a three-run homer. It was the Dodgers’ first home run since the ninth inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series, and it snapped a 118-plate-appearance drought.
But that burst turned out to be the high point for Los Angeles. By the fifth inning, the Brewers had erased the whole thing.
Tyler Glasnow looked sharp at first, retiring his first 10 hitters, then ran into trouble in the fourth when Brice Turang walked and William Contreras and Jake Bauers followed with ground-rule doubles. Milwaukee trimmed the lead there, then kept chipping away in the fifth. Sal Frelick walked, stole second, and scored on David Hamilton’s single, ending Glasnow’s night after he allowed five of his final eight batters to reach.
The bullpen didn’t clean it up. Evan Phillips inherited the mess and walked Turang intentionally before issuing a six-pitch walk to Contreras.
Alex Vesia then came in and immediately walked Bauers on four pitches to force in the tying run. Christian Yelich grounded out, but the damage was done.
The 4-0 cushion was gone.
Milwaukee went to work again in the sixth, this time against Tanner Scott. Garrett Mitchell worked the count full after Scott got ahead 0-2, then sent a homer to center field for the Brewers’ first lead of the night. Mitchell had entered the postseason with only two home runs off left-handers in 201 career plate appearances, but he kept finding the Dodgers - he also homered off Blake Snell in Game 3.
The Dodgers had chances after that and couldn’t cash them in. Andy Pages doubled to open the seventh, Kiké Hernández bunted him to third, and then Aaron Ashby shut the door with three pitches to Ohtani and a groundout from Mookie Betts. Ashby kept rolling in the eighth, leaving Will Smith stranded after a double and an error, then getting Kyle Tucker to fly out and Teoscar Hernández to strike out.
Los Angeles had doubles in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings with one or no outs and still couldn’t score. In the series, the Dodgers finished with only five hits in 43 at-bats with runners in scoring position across eight games.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee kept adding. David Hamilton, who had already stolen a base in Game 4 and swiped three bags in the NLCS, hit a solo homer in the ninth for extra insurance. Ashby stayed out there and finished the job with a three-inning save, something the Dodgers never had all season.
Before the game, Freddie Freeman summed up just how much trouble the Brewers’ lefty was bringing.
“Ashby -- I don’t understand that,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said before Game 4. “It’s 98 to 100 from up here and sinking and curving.”
That pitch mix, and the Brewers’ ability to keep stacking answers, carried them through the series. They are now just the second team ever to get swept one season and then beat that same opponent in the next year’s postseason, joining the 1923 New York Yankees. Milwaukee is also the first team to be swept and then return the favor with a sweep of its own.
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