Brewers Turn Dodgers’ Missed Chances Into a 2-1 NLCS Opener

Great pitching or untimely hitting? That is the question that will roll around inside the Dodgers’ heads Sunday night as they replay the blown opportunities, the missed chances and all the could-have, would-have and should-haves that make October baseball so unforgiving. Pick your poison and let the scoreboard deliver the verdict. Milwaukee Brewers 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 1. The math is simple, even if the reasons behind it are not.

The Dodgers had their opportunities against Jacob Misiorowski, the hard-throwing Milwaukee rookie who entered the National League Championship Series as a leading candidate for the Cy Young Award. They made him work, pushed him into trouble early and eventually chased him in the fifth inning. Yet when the dust settled, Los Angeles had managed only one run, stranded nine runners and grounded into three double plays. The Brewers, meanwhile, found just enough offense and received precisely the kind of relief work that turns a narrow lead into a postseason victory.

For Milwaukee, the 2-1 win was more than a satisfying opening statement in a rematch of last year's NLCS, when the Dodgers swept the Brewers out of the postseason. It was a reminder that this year's Milwaukee club, which finished with the best record in baseball, has no intention of treating that sweep as a preview of what comes next. The Brewers won the first meeting between two 100-win teams in an NLCS since Cincinnati eliminated Philadelphia in 1976, and they did it by playing the kind of disciplined, opportunistic baseball that has carried them this far.

The Dodgers will not have much time to consider what went wrong. Game 2 arrives Monday, with the first pitch coming less than 18 hours after Milwaukee recorded the final out of the opener. Whatever Los Angeles takes from Sunday's defeat must be put to use quickly, because returning home with the series tied at one game apiece is a considerably more comfortable proposition than heading to Dodger Stadium down two games to none.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is scheduled to take the mound, and if anyone in the rotation has earned the benefit of the doubt in October, it is the right-hander whose postseason résumé has become difficult to ignore. His postseason credo is also hard not to be aware of: “Losing isn’t an option.” If anyone can help the Dodgers regain their footing and shift the momentum, it's Yoshi.

The opportunities were there. The runs were not.

The Dodgers appeared poised to make Misiorowski's first NLCS start an uncomfortable one from the outset. They forced him to throw 35 pitches in the second inning, a stretch that included a ten-pitch walk to Kyle Tucker, who fouled off four pitches before finally reaching base. Shohei Ohtani crossed the plate on Andy Pages' single to right field, giving Los Angeles an early lead and putting pressure on a pitcher whose stuff is impressive but whose command can occasionally make the evening more complicated than necessary.

Misiorowski escaped the inning with the help of Milwaukee's defense, however, as Enrique Hernández grounded into an inning-ending double play. It was the second twin killing of the night, following another 6-4-3 double play that ended the first inning. The Brewers were already demonstrating that their defense would be every bit as important as their pitching, and the Dodgers were learning that getting runners aboard was only the first part of the assignment.

Milwaukee answered in the fourth when Brice Turang opened the inning by driving a Tarik Skubal fastball into the home bullpen for a game-tying solo home run. It was Turang's second career postseason homer, a particularly satisfying response for a player who had struggled badly against the Dodgers in last year's NLCS, going 1-for-15 with six strikeouts. October has a way of giving players another opportunity to rewrite the story, and Turang made the most of his first significant moment.

The decisive run came an inning later, and it was a textbook example of Milwaukee's ability to manufacture offense without needing a home run. Garrett Mitchell drew a leadoff walk, then advanced to second when rookie Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt. Luis Lara, another rookie, followed by lining a first-pitch changeup from Skubal into center field, scoring Mitchell and giving the Brewers a 2-1 lead.

Skubal was blunt afterward about the sequence that ultimately decided the game.

“A leadoff walk just can't happen,” Skubal said. “You give them the ability to bunt the ball over and all they need is a base hit, and they got it. Ultimately that's all they needed today.”

Milwaukee threatened to add to its lead, loading the bases with two outs, but Skubal escaped when William Contreras flied out to right field. That escape kept the Dodgers within a single run, a deficit that should have been manageable over the final four innings. The problem was that Los Angeles could not find a way to make that one run matter.

Milwaukee's bullpen shuts the door

Misiorowski's departure in the fifth inning gave the Dodgers another opportunity to seize control of the game, but Milwaukee's bullpen turned the situation into a showcase of its depth. DL Hall entered with a runner aboard and immediately induced Freddie Freeman to ground into another double play, extinguishing the rally before it could develop. Abner Uribe followed by allowing two Dodgers to reach in the sixth, only to strike out Pages with runners on the corners for the final out.

Aaron Ashby then covered two scoreless innings, handling the Dodgers through the seventh and eighth before Trevor Megill took over in the ninth. Ashby's work was particularly impressive in the eighth, when he induced infield popups from Freeman and Ohtani to keep the tying run from advancing. When Megill took the mound for the ninth, Milwaukee was three outs away from protecting its home field in the series opener.

The Dodgers did make one final push. Tucker and pinch-hitter Josue De Paula drew two-out walks, bringing the potential tying run aboard and putting the game back in the hands of Mookie Betts. Betts hit a fly ball toward the center-field warning track, but it remained in the park, and Milwaukee had its victory.

The bullpen combined for 4⅔ scoreless innings, allowing just two hits after Misiorowski's exit. The three double plays were equally damaging to Los Angeles, which finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and has now gone 2-for-22 in that department during the postseason. The Dodgers have shown they can put traffic on the bases; the challenge is turning that traffic into runs before the inning comes to an end.

Freeman understood that a single loss, even in a series opener, does not define what follows.

“Any loss in the playoffs is not great, but it's a long series,” Freeman said. “It's just the first game.”

That is the proper perspective, particularly for a team that has navigated October successfully over the past two seasons. Since beginning its championship run in 2024, Los Angeles has lost only one other opening game of a postseason series. That defeat came in last year's World Series against Toronto, and the Dodgers answered with a decisive Game 2 victory behind Yamamoto. The circumstances now offer a familiar opportunity, although the opponent and the stakes are different.

Reset, then hand the ball to Yamamoto

Manager Dave Roberts was not about to treat Sunday's loss as a crisis, but he was equally clear that the Dodgers cannot expect to coast through a series against the best team in baseball.

“You can't go into a long series against the team with the best record in baseball and just expect to win four,” Roberts said. “It's just going to be a long series. We knew that coming in. We had our chances, but they made pitches when they needed to. We just need to reset. We got ‘our guy’ going tomorrow, which we trust undoubtedly, and we gotta win a baseball game.”

That confidence in Yamamoto is well founded. The Japanese right-hander enters Game 2 with an 8-1 postseason record and a 2.14 ERA in 11 appearances. He pitched a three-hitter in a 5-1 Dodgers victory at Milwaukee in Game 2 of last year's NLCS, and the Dodgers will be counting on another composed performance to prevent the Brewers from taking a commanding two-game advantage.

Mookie Betts kept the immediate objective simple.

“We got to focus on the task at hand, and that's winning the game tomorrow,” Betts said.

There is no shortage of reasons for the Dodgers to believe they can do exactly that. They forced Misiorowski into a taxing outing, got him out of the game before he could complete five innings and had chances against every reliever who followed. They were not completely shut down; they simply failed to convert enough of their opportunities. That distinction matters, because it leaves the Dodgers with a clear problem to address rather than a mystery to solve.

Still, the Brewers deserve credit for making those opportunities disappear. They turned three double plays, received clutch outs from their bullpen and scored the winning run without needing a dramatic late-inning rally. It was efficient, unspectacular baseball, the kind that can frustrate an opponent while quietly moving a team closer to its goal. Milwaukee has been doing that all season, and Sunday's result was another reminder that its success is built on more than a few big swings.

For the Dodgers, the assignment is now straightforward, even if carrying it out will not be. They must find a way to deliver the timely hit, avoid the inning-ending double play and give Yamamoto enough support to make his start count. A 1-1 split would send the series to Los Angeles with the defending champions back on level ground. A 2-0 deficit would place considerably more pressure on a club that knows how quickly a postseason series can turn.

Freeman is right: it is only the first game. But the Dodgers have already seen what happens when a game is close enough to win and the other team makes the pitches that matter. Monday offers them a chance to answer that lesson immediately.

Yamamoto gets the ball. The Dodgers get another shot. And in October, there is rarely much time to dwell on what might have been.