The Brewers are already in a far better spot than they were at any point during last year’s NLCS, and Sunday night made that plain. Milwaukee opened this rematch with a 2-1 win over the Dodgers at American Family Field, a tight, tense game that looked a lot more like Brewers baseball than the track meet the Dodgers wanted.
That alone was enough to flip the mood. Last October, Milwaukee scored one run in each of the four games as Los Angeles swept the series. This time, the Brewers took the opener by leaning into the same formula that carried them to the best record in baseball: pressure, defense and a bullpen that kept slamming the door.
Manager Pat Murphy summed up the approach this way: "You can't get to this point without great defense, you really can't," Murphy said. "We haven't turned as many double plays in the postseason as you'd like, but tonight it was key. ... And our bullpen continues to be really special."
The Brewers’ decisive run came in the fifth, and it was a classic small-ball sequence. Garrett Mitchell drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on Cooper Pratt's sac bunt and scored when rookie Luis Lara lined a single up the middle. With Dodgers starter Tarik Skubal cruising early, Milwaukee had to manufacture that run the hard way.
They did, and they kept doing the little things all night. Milwaukee turned three double plays.
DL Hall came in with one out in the fifth and immediately got out of trouble with an inning-ending double play. Abner Uribe handled a clean sixth, Aaron Ashby worked two hitless innings and Trevor Megill navigated a pair of walks to finish the job in the ninth.
On a night when Jacob Misiorowski didn’t get through five innings, that 4 2/3-inning relief effort was the difference. It was also the kind of game Milwaukee failed to win during last year’s sweep.
Misiorowski, though, remains the big subplot. He wasn’t terrible.
He just wasn’t overpowering in the way the Brewers usually expect from their ace. He lasted 4 1/3 innings in Game 1, and for the second straight postseason start, the fastball wasn’t quite doing enough damage.
In Game 1 of the NLDS against the Padres, his four-seamer produced a whiff rate of just 13.8%, the lowest of any outing this season. Against the Dodgers, it was 18.5% - his second lowest mark of the year. He gave up just one run, but the pitch count climbed because hitters kept fouling off the heater and forcing him to work.
Misiorowski is scheduled to start Game 5, if necessary, on Friday at Dodger Stadium, and he made clear he believes the approach is still sound. "It's the same as the last outing I had against the Padres," Misiorowski said of the Dodgers fouling off so many fastballs.
"I think that was the same goal. Both teams did it really well.
Last game, I kind of went away from my strategy going in, and this one I stuck with it and focused like, 'OK, I've still got the heater. They're not on it, but I've got to trust it.'"
Murphy didn’t sound concerned, even if he acknowledged the stuff wasn’t at its peak. "I thought he was really good. His stuff wasn't great -- no, it wasn't -- but it's still pretty darn good."
The Dodgers, meanwhile, had chances and kept missing them. They stranded nine runners and went just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. That was the story from the start: traffic, but no payoff.
In the second inning, they loaded the bases with one out and had already scored once against Misiorowski, only for Kiké Hernández to bounce into an inning-ending double play. They opened both the third and fourth with a leadoff single and didn’t cash either one in.
In the sixth, with runners on first and third, Andy Pages struck out to kill another rally. And in the ninth, after Kyle Tucker and Josue De Paula drew back-to-back two-out walks, Mookie Betts flied out to end it.
They went down in order only once all night, in the seventh, but the damage never came. That’s been the frustrating thread for Los Angeles, even in stretches where the offense has stacked up hits and baserunners.
Shohei Ohtani’s role in the series is still one of the biggest wild cards. He was the wrecking ball in last year’s NLCS, when he capped the Brewers with a historic performance in Game 4: 3-for-3 with three home runs at the plate and 10 strikeouts over six scoreless innings on the mound. This time, he won’t pitch as he deals with nagging injuries, and the bat hasn’t carried the same weight yet.
Ohtani reached base twice in Game 1, once on a four-pitch walk and once on a flare single. But he still doesn’t have an extra-base hit in five postseason games. He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18, has just one RBI in 23 games since then and is hitting .163 (14-for-86) with a .503 OPS in that stretch.
For the Brewers, Game 1 was exactly the kind of grind they wanted. For the Dodgers, it was another night of almosts.
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Brice Turang Gave The Brewers Exactly What This NLCS Opener Needed
The NLCS opener had the feel Milwaukee needed from the start: tight pitching, clean defense, and a crowd that kept leaning into every small break. Brice Turang was in the middle of all of it, helping the Brewers stay attached in a game where run prevention mattered almost as much as run scoring, and where one sharp play or one well-timed swing could change the entire mood.
Turang supplied both. His defense helped Milwaukee navigate an early jam and keep the deficit from growing, then he came through with the kind of home run that can tilt a playoff game and settle a dugout. With the bullpen backing him up and the atmosphere building around him, the Brewers had exactly the sort of jolt they were hoping for in a series opener like this, even if the full impact of that night was still left to be decided. [Read more 🡒]
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Chourio has also given Milwaukee needed production at the plate in the postseason, becoming a central part of the offense in key moments. His work so far has already changed the feel of the Brewers October, and with a matchup like this one looming, the attention on what he can do next only figures to grow. [Read more 🡒]
DL Hall Is Suddenly Becoming A Brewers October Weapon
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Halls value has grown fast enough that his work now sits among the more notable October stretches in franchise history, even if it still feels like a developing story rather than a finished one. The Brewers clearly see him as an important part of what theyre trying to do this month, and the question now is how far that late-inning trust can carry as the series tightens and the stakes rise. [Read more 🡒]