The two-time defending champions are in real trouble. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday night at American Family Field in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and pushing a 100-win Dodgers team to the edge before the series has even left Wisconsin.
This was not a fluke, and it was not a gift. Milwaukee outhit Los Angeles 12 to 3, chased Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third inning, survived its own defensive mistakes, and then watched its bullpen throw five hitless, scoreless innings to close the door. A year after the Dodgers swept Milwaukee out of this same round, the Brewers have flipped the script completely through two games. Milwaukee also won Game 1 on Sunday, 2-1.
Contreras Owned the Middle of This Game
William Contreras was the best player on the field. The Brewers catcher went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs, and every one of his big swings changed the score. He opened Milwaukee's scoring with an RBI single in the first inning that brought home Brice Turang and answered the Dodgers' early run. In the fifth, after Los Angeles had retaken the lead, Contreras tied the game again with a solo home run to center field, measured at 436 feet. In the sixth, he singled home David Hamilton with the run that put Milwaukee ahead for good.
The home run was the fifth postseason homer of Contreras's career, tying him with Jackson Chourio for the most in Brewers franchise history. But the raw production only tells half of it. Each time the Dodgers grabbed momentum, Contreras took it straight back. Los Angeles never got to pitch with a comfortable lead because Milwaukee's catcher kept erasing it.
The Brewers Chased Yamamoto Early
Yamamoto, the reigning World Series MVP, recorded the shortest postseason start of his career. Milwaukee got him out of the game in the third inning after three runs, with just one strikeout. The Brewers' approach was patient and relentless: they put the ball in play, ran the bases aggressively, and forced the Dodgers to defend every inch of the field.
Photo: Christian Yelich / Brewers coverage photo
Turang reached base four times and scored three runs. Hamilton went 2-for-3, scored three times, stole two bases and was hit by a pitch. Christian Yelich drove in two runs with a pair of hits, Jake Bauers added an RBI, and five different Brewers finished with multi-hit games. This is Milwaukee's identity in October: not one superstar carrying the lineup, but a deep order that keeps the line moving until the other team's pitching breaks. Follow the series on our MLB page.
Los Angeles Scored Without Hitting
The strangest part of the Dodgers' night is how they got their four runs. Los Angeles managed only three hits all game, all of them off Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson, and scored through sacrifice flies and Brewers errors. Henderson allowed four runs in four innings, but only two were earned, as Milwaukee's defense handed Los Angeles extra chances with errors in the field and on a pickoff play.
Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. The Dodgers' prolific offense, the engine of back-to-back championships, has produced almost nothing through two games of this series. When a team scores four runs without driving the ball, it can look scrappy for a night. Over a series, it is a warning sign: the Dodgers are not stringing together quality at-bats against Milwaukee pitching, and the few runs they have gotten have required the Brewers' help.
The Bullpen Slammed the Door
Once Henderson left, the game was over in everything but the score. Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined for five shutout innings without allowing a hit or a walk, striking out seven. The group retired 15 consecutive Dodgers at one stretch, and Ashby finished the game for the save.
Milwaukee's relievers have now allowed just one earned run in 28 and two-thirds innings this postseason, with 26 strikeouts. That is the single biggest reason this series looks the way it does. The Dodgers cannot plan around it, either: there is no soft spot in the Brewers' bullpen to wait out, and every late-inning matchup tilts toward Milwaukee.
The Brewers added two insurance runs in the eighth inning to turn a tight game into the 7-4 final, but the outcome had already been decided by the pitching. Even Milwaukee's mistakes could not keep Los Angeles in the game once the bullpen took over.
What Los Angeles Must Fix Before Game 3
The series shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday, October 14, with Blake Snell scheduled to start for Los Angeles against Milwaukee's Robert Gasser. The Dodgers get home field and a travel day, but neither fixes their actual problems.
First, the stars have to hit. Ohtani was hitless in Game 2 and the Dodgers managed three team hits in a game they absolutely needed. Second, the rotation has to give them length: Yamamoto's early exit forced the bullpen to cover most of the game in a loss, and that tax compounds over a long series. Third, Los Angeles has to stop depending on Milwaukee mistakes. The Brewers made errors in Game 2 and won anyway, because their pitching and depth covered for the miscues.
History says a 2-0 deficit is survivable. This Dodgers team, though, does not look like itself: the at-bats are short, the pitching is leaking early runs, and the opponent is deeper and completely unafraid. Milwaukee needs two more wins to reach its first World Series in 44 years. If the Brewers win just one of the three games in Los Angeles, they come home with a chance to close it out. The champions have to save their season at home, starting Wednesday night.
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