Dodgers vs. Brewers, Again: the NLCS Rematch Milwaukee Has Waited a Year For

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 — October has a way of giving you exactly the matchup you did not want to see again. The Dodgers and the Brewers will meet in the National League Championship Series for the second straight year, starting Sunday at American Family Field — and this time, Milwaukee is not the plucky underdog crashing the party. The Brewers won 103 games, a franchise record. They finished with the best record in baseball. They get the first two games at home. Last October, the Dodgers swept them and lifted another trophy. The Brewers have had 365 days to think about that.

This is the fourth time these two clubs have met in the postseason since 2018, and the Dodgers have never lost a playoff series to Milwaukee. That is the history. The present looks different: the Brewers went 4-3 against LA in the regular season, including taking three of four at Dodger Stadium in mid-August, and they arrive in the NLCS playing the brand of complete baseball that produced the best record in the sport. The Dodgers arrive as the two-time defending champions chasing a third straight title — a team that looked shaky for two months and is suddenly peaking at the exact right moment.

How we got here: two Game 4s, two heroes

Wednesday night delivered the matchup in a span of a few hours. In Atlanta, the Dodgers broke a scoreless tie in the seventh when Andy Pages — with the bases loaded and two outs — ripped a two-run single up the middle to power a 4-1 win over the Braves, closing out the series in four games and sending LA to its third straight NLCS.

Hours later in San Diego, the Brewers finished off the Padres 3-1 in Game 4, and the signature moment belonged to center fielder Garrett Mitchell. With Milwaukee clinging to the lead in the eighth, Mitchell went back to the wall and robbed Manny Machado of a game-tying two-run home run — the kind of catch that gets replayed every October for a decade. The Brewers’ bullpen did the rest, and a franchise that has never won a World Series is four wins from the Fall Classic.

Both clinchers told you something about these teams. The Dodgers won with depth and patience: a bases-loaded walk here, a manufactured run there, a bullpen that picked up Tyler Glasnow when his command wavered. The Brewers won with defense and pitching, the formula that carried them to 103 wins. Neither team needed its stars to be superhuman. Both teams got exactly what they needed, when they needed it. That is what October baseball looks like when both clubs are built for it.

The schedule

All games air on FOX or FS1, streaming on Fox One. Start times are announced a few days at a time.

Sunday, Oct. 11 — Game 1: Dodgers at Brewers, American Family Field
Monday, Oct. 12 — Game 2: Dodgers at Brewers, American Family Field
Wednesday, Oct. 14 — Game 3: Brewers at Dodgers, Dodger Stadium
Thursday, Oct. 15 — Game 4: Brewers at Dodgers, Dodger Stadium
Friday, Oct. 16 — Game 5*: Brewers at Dodgers, Dodger Stadium
Sunday, Oct. 18 — Game 6*: Dodgers at Brewers, American Family Field
Monday, Oct. 19 — Game 7*: Dodgers at Brewers, American Family Field
*if necessary

Why this year is different from last year

The easy narrative is that the Dodgers own the Brewers in October, and the record backs it up: three previous postseason meetings since 2018, three Dodgers series wins, including last year’s sweep. But the personnel and the power dynamics have shifted.

Start with the obvious: home field. Milwaukee opens with two games at American Family Field, where it was one of the best home teams in baseball. Last year’s sweep happened with the Dodgers holding the hammer; this year the Brewers get the first punch. In a seven-game series, that matters more than any regular-season head-to-head.

Then there is the question of which Dodgers team shows up. The second half of LA’s season was genuinely uneven — injuries and prolonged slumps touched nearly every star, from Shohei Ohtani to Blake Snell, and offseason additions Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz never quite became the difference-makers the front office envisioned. The Dodgers even dropped Ohtani to fifth in the lineup for Game 3 of the NLDS after his cold start at the plate, before moving him back to cleanup for the clincher. That is not the behavior of a team that trusts its MVP implicitly right now.

But — and this is the terrifying part for Milwaukee — the Dodgers are rounding into form at the perfect time. The bullpen covered for Glasnow’s command issues in the clincher. The lineup manufactured runs without needing the long ball. October experience is the one thing you cannot simulate, and the Dodgers’ core has now played in three straight NLCS. The Brewers have the better regular-season résumé; the Dodgers have the better October résumé. Something has to give.

The Brewers’ case

Milwaukee’s argument is simple and it is strong: they were the best team in baseball for six months. One hundred and three wins does not happen by accident. The Brewers pitch, they defend — Mitchell’s robbery of Machado was the exclamation point on a season full of that stuff — and they have a bullpen built for the short-burst chaos of October.

The regular-season series is worth a second look, too. The Brewers went 4-3 against the Dodgers, and the three wins at Dodger Stadium in August were not flukes; Milwaukee outplayed LA in its own building for an entire weekend. The Dodgers finished three games behind the Brewers in the standings. The gap between these teams in 2026 was real, and it favored Milwaukee.

The counter is equally simple: the regular season does not matter now. The Dodgers were the best team in baseball last year too, and they still got swept. October has a way of flattening 103-win seasons into trivia. Milwaukee knows this better than anyone — it lived it twelve months ago.

The other half of the bracket

While the National League sorts out its rematch, the American League still has business to finish. The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Yankees and are waiting in the ALCS, which begins Monday, Oct. 12. Their opponent will be decided tonight: the White Sox lead the Guardians 2-1 heading into Game 4 at 8 p.m. ET at Rate Field on TBS, with Cleveland’s Parker Messick starting against Chicago opener Hagen Smith.

If the White Sox close it out tonight, the ALCS is Rays vs. White Sox — a matchup nobody had on their April bingo card, featuring the team that lost 121 games two years ago against the franchise that keeps winning with the smallest payroll in the sport’s biggest moments. If Cleveland forces a Game 5 on Saturday, the chaos continues. Either way, the World Series starts Friday, Oct. 23 on FOX, and for the first time in a while, all four remaining fan bases can talk themselves into a parade.

Full postseason coverage: Brewers close out the Padres, Dodgers finish the Braves, Rays sweep the Yankees, and Guardians force Game 4.