Brewers Take Command Of NLCS As Dodgers' Bats Go Quiet In Game 2

The Los Angeles Dodgers have spent the better part of two seasons reminding everyone that championship teams find ways to win when the circumstances turn uncomfortable. Monday night in Milwaukee, however, the defending champions never looked particularly comfortable, and the Brewers were more than happy to keep it that way.

Milwaukee erased three separate Dodgers leads, took control in the late innings and walked away with a 7-4 victory that gave it a commanding two-game lead in the National League Championship Series, leaving Los Angeles with considerably more to figure out than how to get back into the win column.

The final score suggested a competitive game, and technically it was, with the lead changing hands four times. The underlying numbers told a less flattering story for Los Angeles, which managed just three hits while scoring four runs, a statistical oddity made possible largely by two throwing errors from Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson. Those mistakes gave the Dodgers opportunities they did little to earn with the bat, and when the free passes finally ran out, the lineup had no answer for a Brewers bullpen that retired the final 15 Los Angeles hitters in order. Milwaukee's relievers have now allowed just one earned run in 28⅔ postseason innings, a stretch of work that is beginning to look less like a hot streak and more like a very inconvenient problem for the opposition.

The night began with the promise of a pitching matchup between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Henderson, but neither starter followed the anticipated script. Yamamoto, who entered the game with an 8-1 record and a 2.14 ERA in 11 career postseason appearances, lasted only 2⅔ innings, throwing 75 pitches and allowing three runs in the shortest postseason start of his career.

 Milwaukee made him work for virtually everything, extending at-bats and refusing to give him the comfortable innings that have become his trademark. Christian Yelich finally broke through with a two-run single in the third after Jake Bauers had battled through a 12-pitch plate appearance before drawing a walk to load the bases, and Yamamoto was finished before the inning could become any more expensive.

Dave Roberts did not try to dress up the performance afterward. “He just didn’t have it tonight, which is very rare,” the Dodgers manager said, a concise assessment of a pitcher who has generally been one of the club's most dependable October weapons.

Mookie Betts offered a little perspective, noting that Yamamoto's extraordinary consistency can make an ordinary bad night seem almost unrecognizable. “I think everybody’s so used to him being a robot that if he didn’t go eight innings, no hits, whatever, it wasn’t Yamamoto,” Betts said. “It shows he’s a human being and it’s playoff baseball.” That may be true, but the Dodgers could hardly have picked a worse time to discover that even their most reliable starters occasionally have an off night.

Henderson, meanwhile, gave Los Angeles several opportunities to take advantage of his own difficulties. Milwaukee's starter had allowed no more than three runs in any of his previous 24 career starts, including postseason appearances, but he surrendered four runs over four innings. Two of those runs were unearned, thanks to a pair of wild throws that helped the Dodgers move runners around the bases without producing much in the way of hard contact. Tommy Edman scored in the third when Henderson's pickoff attempt sailed away, and the Dodgers took advantage again in the fifth after Kyle Tucker opened the inning with a double and Edman laid down a sacrifice bunt. Henderson fielded the bunt and threw wildly to first, allowing Tucker to score and Edman to advance, with Freddie Freeman's sacrifice fly bringing home the tying run later in the inning.

For a moment, the Dodgers had turned Milwaukee's mistakes into a 4-3 lead, but there was little evidence that the offense had found a rhythm. Three hits are a thin foundation for four runs, especially when two of those runs arrive courtesy of throwing errors, and Los Angeles went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position to fall to 2-for-26 in those situations this postseason.

The Brewers, by contrast, continued to put together patient, competitive at-bats, and William Contreras made the difference with two swings that changed the direction of the game. His 436-foot home run to center field off Kris Bubic in the fifth tied the score at 4-4, and his single an inning later brought home the go-ahead run after the Dodgers handed Milwaukee an opening it did not intend to waste.

The decisive sequence began when David Hamilton was hit by a pitch from Brock Stewart to open the sixth. Stewart's pickoff throw then glanced off Freeman's glove and rolled into foul territory, moving Hamilton to second. Jackson Chourio grounded out, and Stewart walked left-handed hitter Brice Turang to set up a confrontation with Contreras, who had already homered in his previous plate appearance. Contreras responded by lining a single to left field, scoring Hamilton and giving Milwaukee a lead it would not surrender. He finished 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs, and afterward explained that he used the decision to pitch to him as motivation rather than allowing the moment to grow too large. Milwaukee added two insurance runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Turang and Jake Bauers, while the Dodgers' bats remained silent against a bullpen that has shown little inclination to offer second chances.

“They had much better at-bats than we did across the board, top-to-bottom,” Roberts said. It was difficult to argue with the manager's assessment. Milwaukee made Yamamoto labor, took advantage of defensive mistakes, and continued to pressure the Dodgers after falling behind. Los Angeles, meanwhile, spent much of the evening waiting for something to happen rather than making it happen. Teoscar Hernández offered the sort of response the club needs from its veterans, keeping the focus on the next game rather than allowing the series to become a larger burden. “Forget about what happened today and yesterday, regroup tomorrow and go after it on Wednesday,” Hernández said.

The challenge is straightforward, even if the solution is not. The Dodgers need better at-bats, more traffic created by their own work, and a way to make Milwaukee's bullpen uncomfortable before it can settle into its late-game routine.

The Brewers have shown they can absorb an early deficit without losing their composure, and their relief corps has been nearly untouchable through the postseason. Los Angeles has faced difficult October situations before, including a 2-0 deficit in the 2020 NLCS against Atlanta, a series it ultimately won in seven games on the way to a championship. That history offers a reminder that the situation is not hopeless, but it is not a plan, either.

Milwaukee is now two wins away from its first National League pennant and its first World Series appearance since 1982, when the franchise was still in the American League. The Dodgers, seeking to become the first National League team to win three consecutive World Series, must now return home and rediscover the offense that has carried them through so much of the season. Game 3 is Wednesday in Los Angeles, with Blake Snell expected to start for the Dodgers against Milwaukee's likely starter, Robert Gasser.

“The Dodgers return home needing more than a change of scenery. They need their offense to show up, their starting pitching to give them length, and their championship pedigree to mean something on the field. With Milwaukee two wins from the pennant, the margin for error has all but disappeared.”