For the second night in a row, the Brewers found themselves chasing late. This time, the comeback never quite took shape. Milwaukee loaded the bases in the ninth inning but came up empty, falling to the Dodgers, 3-1.
The game opened with both starters being asked to work. Yoshinobu Yamamoto needed 26 pitches to get through the first, even though the Brewers only put one runner on base - a Jake Bauers walk.
Robert Gasser, by contrast, was crisp right away, using just 14 pitches in his opening frame. But the Dodgers made their early damage count anyway, stringing together three singles in the first inning.
The last one came from Mookie Betts and brought in a run, giving Los Angeles a 1-0 lead after one.
After that, the two pitchers settled in. Neither offense could break through for the next three innings, though both clubs had a chance in the third.
Joey Ortiz doubled with one out for Milwaukee, but Garrett Mitchell and Jackson Chourio both struck out to strand him. In the bottom half, Andy Pages singled with two outs, then stole second, but the Dodgers left him there too.
Milwaukee finally got on the board in the fifth. Luis Lara opened the inning with a long double that barely stayed in play, and the Brewers used that spark to manufacture a run.
David Hamilton laid down a good bunt for a single, and Ortiz followed with a sharp liner that was hit right at Kyle Tucker. It was still deep enough to bring Lara home and tie the game at 1-1.
The tie lasted only briefly. Pages answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out solo homer to left, and one inning later Tommy Edman added another solo shot, this one to center, pushing the Dodgers ahead 3-1.
Gasser kept battling and worked into the seventh, starting the frame with a lineout from Hunter Feducia. His night ended after a walk to Shohei Ohtani.
He finished with 6 1/3 innings, three runs allowed on eight hits and one walk, with seven strikeouts. It was also his heaviest workload to date, at 102 pitches.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, held Milwaukee mostly in check and lasted six innings. He gave up one run on four hits and two walks while striking out nine Brewers.
The bullpens then took over and quieted things for a couple of innings. Evan Phillips and Tanner Scott handled the seventh and eighth for Los Angeles without allowing a run. Grant Anderson finished the seventh for Milwaukee after working around a walk, and Bryse Wilson came through the eighth by striking out the side.
Then came the ninth, and the Brewers had one more shot at another rally. It started with Andrew Vaughn, who worked a full count before getting hit by a pitch.
Pinch-runner Jihwan Bae came in and stole second on a 1-1 count, putting a runner in scoring position. Christian Yelich struck out for the first out, but the inning stayed alive when William Contreras drew a walk after Edwin Díaz couldn’t find the zone.
Lara then saw a pitch up and in, followed by a slider right over the plate, and he hit it hard on the ground. Tommy Edman made a running grab to take away a hit, though he could only get the out at first.
That moved both runners up to second and third, and Hamilton followed by drawing another walk on five pitches to load the bases. Ortiz came up with the game still there for the taking, but he grounded out to Betts to end it.
Milwaukee finished with just one run, five hits and four walks. The hits were spread across five different Brewers, with Bauers and Hamilton the only ones to reach base twice. The club went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base.
The series is tied 1-1, and the Brewers will send Jacob Misiorowski to the mound Saturday against Justin Wrobleski. First pitch is set for 6:15 p.m. on FOX.
In Other News...
Brice Turang Just Gave Brewers Fans Reason To Exhale
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Brewers Missed On Tarik Skubal But Logan Henderson Just Raised The Stakes
The Brewers spent the trade deadline working on a Tarik Skubal deal, but the chase ended with Detroit sending the left-hander to the Dodgers instead. It was the kind of near miss that lingers around a contender, especially when the player at the center of it is one of the most sought-after arms in the market. Skubal has already made two starts for Los Angeles since the trade, and the Brewers are left to watch from afar as the move that got away starts to take shape.
Logan Henderson has become part of the story too, offering his thoughts on the upcoming matchup with Skubal after being mentioned as a pitcher Milwaukee viewed as a key piece of its long-term picture. The Brewers are always balancing the present against the future, and the Skubal pursuit showed how aggressive they were willing to be without crossing every line. Hendersons comments only add another layer to the situation, because the trade that never happened now sits beside a young arm trying to establish just how high his own value really is. [Read more 🡒]