Last October the Los Angeles Dodgers swept Milwaukee out of the National League Championship Series while holding them to a single run each game. This time the Brewers have struck first. Backed by a roaring home crowd, they beat the two-time defending champions 2-1 on Sunday night to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven rematch.
The decisive run summed up how Milwaukee piled up a major-league-best 103 wins. In the fifth inning, Garrett Mitchell took ball four, a sacrifice from Cooper Pratt moved him up, and 21-year-old rookie Luis Lara lined Tarik Skubal’s first pitch into center field. An inning earlier, Brice Turang had wiped out the Dodgers’ lead by sending an inside sinker from the left-hander over the opposite-field fence.
Los Angeles had grabbed that early edge in the second when Shohei Ohtani walked and came around on an Andy Pages single, and they threatened for more with the bases loaded and one out. Jacob Misiorowski wriggled free with a double play and battled through 4 1/3 innings, conceding afterwards that he lacked his best stuff. Los Angeles managed just one hit in six chances with men in scoring position and left nine on base.
From there the relievers took over. DL Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill did not allow a run over the final 4 2/3 innings, though Megill made it tense in the ninth by walking two batters and bringing Mookie Betts up as the potential go-ahead run. Betts drove one deep to center, where Mitchell made the catch on the warning track to end it.
“These are the games we live for,” Turang said. Dave Roberts, managing the Dodgers, expects a long series, and there is little time to regroup: Game 2 is Monday in Milwaukee, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing Logan Henderson.
