On Sunday night, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 in Game 1 of the NLCS, a rematch the two teams had been waiting a year to play.
How the Brewers took the lead
The decisive moment came in the fifth inning. Rookie Luis Lara stung a first-pitch changeup from Tarik Skubal up the middle to score Garrett Mitchell, who had drawn a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a Cooper Pratt sacrifice bunt. Milwaukee can score in many ways, but taking a fifth-inning lead on a manufactured run and holding it the rest of the way captured how the team reached the NLCS. It also showed that this is not the same Brewers club that the Dodgers swept last year.
Bullpen was the star
Milwaukee’s bullpen was the story of Game 1. D.L. Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined to throw 4⅔ scoreless innings and escaped several difficult situations with composure. Ashby deserves special credit. He covered two innings and induced a pair of eighth-inning infield popups, one from Freddie Freeman and one from Shohei Ohtani.
Three double plays made the difference
Jacob Misiorowski struggled early, but Milwaukee’s defense repeatedly bailed him out. Two 6-4-3 double plays ended the first and second innings. When Misiorowski exited in the fifth, Hall immediately induced another inning-ending double play to stop a potential rally. Those three twin killings kept the Dodgers from building momentum at key points.
What it means for the Dodgers
This is only the second time since the Dodgers’ championship run began in 2024 that they have lost the opening game of a playoff series. The first came in last year’s World Series, and they recovered to beat the Blue Jays in Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Yamamoto starts Game 2 on Monday at 5 p.m. ET, and Los Angeles will be trying to avoid falling into a 2-0 hole against a Brewers team that has shown it can compete with anyone.