SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2026
The two best teams in baseball are about to find out which one actually is. Game 1 of the National League Championship Series is Sunday at American Family Field in Milwaukee — 5 p.m. PT on FOX — and it's the rematch nobody in Wisconsin wanted and everybody in baseball needed: the 103-win Brewers against the two-time defending champion Dodgers.
Think about how absurd that sentence is. Milwaukee won 103 games — a franchise record, the best record in the majors — and somehow walks into its own pennant series as the team with something to prove. The Dodgers won 100, took the Braves out in four in the NLDS, and the betting market still treats them like the main character. Per rg.org's series odds breakdown, the books made Los Angeles the team to beat despite Milwaukee owning home field.
That's the disrespect discount. And the Brewers are going to try to cash it.
The aces: Misiorowski vs. Skubal
Sunday's pitching matchup is the kind of thing that sells a series by itself. Milwaukee hands the ball to Jacob Misiorowski, who went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts in the regular season — leading the majors in ERA, strikeouts, and WHIP, according to rg.org's Game 1 odds report. When your Game 1 starter leads the sport in all three pitching triple-crown categories, you're not the plucky underdog. You're the best team in baseball.
The Dodgers counter with Tarik Skubal, and this one is confirmed — manager Dave Roberts told reporters Friday that Skubal starts the opener, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 and Blake Snell expected in Game 3, per NBC Sports. Skubal was brilliant in his Dodgers postseason debut, striking out seven over six innings of one-run ball in the NLDS Game 1 win over Atlanta. Two guys who can take a game over by themselves. In October, that's the whole menu.
One roster note to watch on the Los Angeles side: infielder Miguel Rojas, who exited NLDS Game 3 with lower-back pain and sat out the clincher, has improved but his status for the NLCS remains in question — Roberts said a final decision could come Sunday, per NBC Sports.
How they got here
Milwaukee handled the Padres in four, closing out the NLDS at Petco Park — the same building where San Diego spent the summer talking about how the NL West runs through Southern California. The Brewers' division-round numbers were silly: a 1.80 staff ERA and a .181 opponent batting average, per Fox Sports. The offense did just enough — 13 runs in four games — led by Andrew Vaughn (.500), Jackson Chourio (a team-high six RBI), and Christian Yelich, who reached base in all four games while hitting .357 with a .471 on-base percentage.
Milwaukee's best October bat, though, plays catcher. William Contreras hit .375 with a .444 on-base and a .750 slugging mark against San Diego, with two home runs — including a 3-for-4 night with a walk and a homer in the Oct. 6 loss, per Fox Sports. When your catcher is slugging .750, your lineup has no soft underbelly.
The Dodgers' path was louder. They hit .203 as a team against Atlanta and scored 14 runs anyway, because that's what happens when you hit eight home runs in four games. Max Muncy was the hammer: 3-for-12, three homers, three RBIs, a 1.000 slugging percentage — and he homered in three of the four games, per Fox Sports. Kyle Tucker hit .333 to keep the line moving, Yamamoto piled up 10 strikeouts, and the staff held Braves hitters to a .145 average over 36 innings. When the two-time champs can't hit and still win in four, that's the scariest version of them.
The revenge factor is real
Let's not pretend this is just another series. The Dodgers swept Milwaukee in last year's NLCS — four games, no drama, see you next spring. The Brewers have had 12 months to sit with that, and this season they answered by winning 103 games and taking four of seven regular-season meetings from Los Angeles, per Tixel's series preview. The regular season doesn't settle October scores, but it does tell you the Brewers aren't walking into this one hoping to compete. They expect to win it.
The history cuts the other way too. This Dodgers core has now played in three straight NLCS with two rings to show for it, and they're chasing the three-peat — something no team has pulled off since the Yankees won five straight from 1949-53, as the Desert Sun noted in its series preview. Dynasties don't announce themselves; they just keep showing up in October and daring you to be the team that stops them.
The schedule
Games 1 and 2 are in Milwaukee — Sunday at 5 p.m. PT on FOX, Monday at 2 p.m. PT on FOX. Then the series moves to Los Angeles for Games 3 (Wednesday, 5 p.m. PT), 4 (Thursday, 6 p.m. PT), and 5 (Friday, 6 p.m. PT), all on FS1, per Sports Illustrated's series schedule. If it goes the distance, Games 6 and 7 come back to American Family Field on Oct. 18 and 19. That's the value of 103 wins: if this thing goes seven, the last word gets spoken in Milwaukee.
The experts are split, which tells you everything about how good this series should be. Sports Illustrated's panel had one voice taking the Brewers in seven and two more taking the Dodgers in six. Nobody's picking a sweep either way. Nobody's picking it to be easy.
Our AL side coverage has the Rays waiting on the other side of the bracket — Tampa Bay swept the Yankees and is resting up while the National League beats itself up. The winner of this series gets the team with the best record in the American League. There are no soft landings left in October.
Sunday, Oct. 11 — 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET, FOX, American Family Field, Milwaukee. RHP Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) vs. LHP Tarik Skubal (LAD); Yamamoto G2, Snell expected G3 for LA. Brewers 103-59 (best in MLB, franchise record); Dodgers 100-62. Brewers beat Padres 3-1; Dodgers beat Braves 3-1. Dodgers swept Brewers in the 2025 NLCS. Brewers around -116, Dodgers around -102 (per rg.org).
