The Milwaukee Brewers opened the National League Championship Series with a thrilling 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night, avenging a sweep from last year’s rematch.
Rookie Luis Lara provided the decisive blow. He stung a first-pitch Tarik Skubal changeup up the middle to score Garrett Mitchell, who had drawn a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a Cooper Pratt sacrifice bunt. Milwaukee took a fifth-inning lead on a manufactured run and held it for the rest of the game, a fitting illustration of its march to the NLCS and an early sign that these are not the same Brewers who were swept by the Dodgers last year.
Game 1 star: Milwaukee’s bullpen
From DL Hall to Abner Uribe to Aaron Ashby to Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ relievers threw 4⅔ scoreless innings and worked out of several difficult situations. Ashby deserves special credit. He covered two innings and induced a pair of eighth-inning infield popups, from Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani. Uribe also stranded two runners with a strikeout to keep Milwaukee in front.
The stat that defined the game: three double plays
Jacob Misiorowski struggled early, but Milwaukee’s defence bailed him out. Two 6-4-3 double plays ended the first and second innings. After Misiorowski exited in the fifth, Hall immediately induced an inning-ending double play to stamp out another potential rally.
What it means for the rest of the series
This is only the second time since the Dodgers’ championship-winning run began in 2024 that they have lost the opening game of a playoff series. The first was the World Series last year, and they recovered to beat the Blue Jays in Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Yamamoto starts Game 2 on Monday at 5 p.m. ET, and the Dodgers know that a 2-0 series deficit against a team as strong as the Brewers could cause real trouble.
Other key moments
Skubal recorded six strikeouts through the first three innings. Misiorowski threw a fastball at 102 mph. Brice Turang’s moment tied the game, before Lara’s go-ahead hit put Milwaukee back in front.