The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Sunday night in the opener of a National League Championship Series rematch, a matchup fans have waited a year to see again. The Brewers took the lead in the fifth inning and held on.
The decisive moment
Rookie Luis Lara lined a first-pitch changeup from Tarik Skubal up the middle to score Garrett Mitchell. Mitchell had drawn a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Cooper Pratt. Milwaukee can score in many ways, but taking a fifth-inning lead on a manufactured run and protecting it all game reflected how the Brewers reached the NLCS. It also showed that this is a different Milwaukee team from the one the Dodgers swept last year.
Star of the game: the bullpen
Milwaukee’s bullpen was the story after the starters exited. D.L. Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined for 4⅔ scoreless innings and escaped several tough spots. Ashby was especially effective, covering two innings and inducing a pair of infield popups from Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani in the eighth.
The stat that defined the game
Milwaukee turned three double plays. Jacob Misiorowski struggled early, but the Brewers’ defense bailed him out with 6-4-3 double plays to end the first and second innings. After Misiorowski left in the fifth, Hall got another inning-ending double play to snuff out a potential Dodgers rally.
What it means for the series
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 was the World Series last year, when they bounced back to beat the Blue Jays in Game 2 behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto gets the ball again in Game 2 on Monday at 5 p.m. ET. Falling behind 2-0 to a team as strong as the Brewers would create real trouble for Los Angeles.
Highlights from the opener
Uribe struck out a batter with runners stranded to keep Milwaukee ahead. Turang tied the game for the Brewers before Lara’s go-ahead hit. Skubal struck out six through the first three innings, and Misiorowski reached 102 mph on the radar gun.