Brewers Sweep Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4, Reach First World Series Since 1982

LOS ANGELES Thursday, October 15, 2026

Forty-four years is a long time to wait for anything. It is long enough for a franchise to change leagues, change ballparks, change owners and change generations of fans — and still be defined, every October, by the one autumn it almost finished the job. On Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, the Milwaukee Brewers finally rewrote that definition. Milwaukee beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep and advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1982.

That 1982 club — Harvey's Wallbangers, an American League team built on power — lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. No current Brewer was alive for it. This year's team earned its own place in franchise history the hard way: by spotting the two-time defending champions a four-run lead in an elimination game on the road, and then methodically taking it all back. For how the comeback built during the evening, see Previously's live Game 4 report.

The Dodgers' best punch came early

For two innings, Los Angeles played like a champion that intended to survive. The Dodgers scored four times in the second inning: Andy Pages opened the scoring with an RBI single, and Shohei Ohtani — back in the leadoff spot — followed with a three-run home run measured at 428 feet. It was Ohtani's first home run of this postseason, and for a few minutes it sounded, inside a loud Dodger Stadium, like the start of a series rather than the end of one. Our earlier report on that swing is at the Ohtani homer story.

Milwaukee's answer was not dramatic at first, and that was the point. These Brewers, who won a club-record 103 games and finished with baseball's best regular-season record, have spent all week turning at-bats into work. They did not need to match a three-run homer with one swing. They needed to make Los Angeles keep pitching.

Two in the fourth, two in the fifth

The comeback started in the fourth, when Jake Bauers drove a two-run ground-rule double that cut the lead in half, 4-2. An inning later Milwaukee finished the job. The Brewers tied the game 4-4 in the fifth, a rally that included Bauers drawing a bases-loaded walk — plate discipline as a pennant play, the tying run walking home while Dodger Stadium went quiet. Bauers, who drove in three runs in Game 4, has his own story tonight: he was named the series MVP, covered in our Bauers MVP report.

What deserves underlining is how Milwaukee pitched after the second inning. In a bullpen game, four Brewers pitchers held Los Angeles scoreless over the final seven innings. Every Dodgers threat after the early burst ran into a fresh arm and a plan, and the defending champions never scored again after Ohtani's homer.

Mitchell in the sixth, Hamilton in the ninth

The go-ahead run arrived in the sixth. Garrett Mitchell, who had also homered in Milwaukee's Game 3 win, hit a solo home run off reliever Tanner Scott to put the Brewers in front 5-4 — their first lead of the night, and one they never gave back. Scott took the loss. JoJo Romero, who worked two innings in relief, earned the win.

The insurance came late, and it came from an unlikely source. In the ninth, No. 9 hitter David Hamilton hit a two-out solo home run off Edwin Díaz to make it 6-4. Hamilton hit only four home runs during the regular season. In October, timing counts for more than totals. Aaron Ashby then closed it out, working the final three innings for the save — his second save of this postseason — as the Brewers' bullpen finished a scoreless final seven frames.

A reversal, one year later

There is a symmetry the Brewers will savor. Last October, Los Angeles swept Milwaukee out of this same round. This October, Milwaukee returned the sweep, becoming, as Reuters noted, the first club to sweep the same opponent that had swept it out of the playoffs a year earlier. The Dodgers held a lead at some point in games across this series; Milwaukee won all four anyway. That is not a fluke profile. That is a team that was better in every late inning that mattered. The Game 3 recap that set up the sweep is at our Game 3 report.

Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, speaking at the trophy presentation, drew the contrast in roster terms — Los Angeles has its stars, he said, and his club has gamers, and this week the gamers won. However you phrase it, the underlying fact is the same: the smallest-market club in baseball just beat the sport's most expensive operation four straight times.

What comes next

The World Series opens Friday, October 23, at American Family Field in Milwaukee, because the Brewers' 103-win season earned them home-field advantage. Their opponent will be the winner of the American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays; Cleveland took a 2-1 lead in that series on Thursday. Our ALCS look-ahead is at the Guardians-Rays Game 4 preview.

For Milwaukee, the next week is both a celebration and an assignment. A 44-year wait ends with a pennant; the job that remains is the one the 1982 team could not finish — winning the last series. For Los Angeles, the winter starts with harder questions, including the end of a clubhouse era: veteran Miguel Rojas announced his retirement in the home clubhouse after the loss, covered in our Rojas retirement story. Full coverage continues on the Previously sports front.