Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal spent more time on the mound in the battle with Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, but it was the runs that Skubal allowed that made the difference in the game.
Skubal struck out seven and allowed five hits, but it was two earned runs against him that made the difference. Misiorowski pitched 4⅓ innings, allowed five hits and one earned run while striking out five.
The Brewers managed to overcome the early run scored by the Dodgers in the top of the second inning. Brice Turang hit a solo home run 384 feet into left center field in the fourth inning. Luis Lara followed it up with a single to center field in the bottom of the fifth that brought in Garrett Mitchell.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be the Game 2 starter for the Dodgers. Logan Henderson will be on the mound for the Brewers. Here’s when they will play:
Our editors independently choose our recommendations. Some content is produced with paid support from a third party, however our editorial decisions remain independent. If you buy through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices and availability may change.
MILWAUKEE – The Dodgers have a fight on their hands.
In their 2-1 defeat to the Brewers at American Family Field on Sunday night, the Dodgers were shown what they’re in for in this National League Championship Series.
The Blue-Collar Brewers claimed Game 1 by doing what they did in their 103-win regular season.
They leveraged their bullpen.
They bunted the go-ahead runner into scoring position.
They played clean defense.
Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell scores on a base hit by Luis Lara as Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith looks away during the fifth inning. AP Photo/Ashley Landis
Here’s what they didn’t do: They didn’t roll over the way they did last year when the Dodgers swept them in four games at this stage of the postseason.
“You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win in four (games),” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in.”
The Brewers played with an edge they didn’t have a year ago, the team’s attitude vocalized before the game by their manager and spirit animal, Pat Murphy.
Speaking about Dodgers starter Tarik Skubal, Murphy said, “I just want to step on his throat, do you know what I mean? I mean that respectfully because I really like Tarik, but I just want to beat him.”
Murphy was joking, but he wasn’t.
Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang celebrates his solo home run as Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman looks on during the fourth inning. AP Photo/Kyla Wolf
The Brewers didn’t exactly step on Skubal’s throat. What they did was more like pinch him into submission, as they tied the game on a Brice Turang homer in the fourth inning and moved ahead on a run they manufactured in the fifth.
Somehow, that was enough for them to win the game on a night in which the Dodgers were able to do to likely Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski what they did to Braves ace Chris Sale in the previous round.
The Dodgers ran up Misiorowski’s pitch count and forced him out of the game after just 4 ⅓ innings, but they couldn’t break the fireballer.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski celebrates the end of the fourth inning. AP Photo/Abbie Parr
The second inning was the Dodgers’ most productive inning – but also the most frustrating.
Shohei Ohtani started the inning by drawing a four-pitch walk and advancing to second base on a single by Teoscar Hernández. He was driven in by another single, this one by Andy Pages.
Kyle Tucker followed up with a 10-pitch walk to load the bases with one out, and that brought up Kiké Hernández, who worked a seven-pitch at-bat that ended with an inning-ending double play.
Misiorowski threw 35 pitches in that inning alone, but the Dodgers had only one run to show for it.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill celebrates after Game 1. AP Photo/Abbie Parr
The Dodgers extracted a price for the defeat, however, as Misiorowski’s fifth-inning departure resulted in the Brewers using four relievers, including their best three.
“Hopefully in a long series it could prove to be beneficial the more times we see them,” Roberts said.
As dependent as the Brewers were on their bullpen in the regular season, they are even more so now.
Outside of Misiorowski, they have only one other pitcher capable of making traditional starts in the postseason, rookie Logan Henderson.
But the 24-year-old Henderson is by no means an old-school workhorse. In each of his last three regular-season starts, he pitched five innings. In his postseason debut against the San Diego Padres in the Divisional Round, he pitched five innings.
Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy flips his bat after popping out during the ninth inning. AP Photo/Ashley Landis
Beyond that, they have right-hander Dustin May and left-hander Robert Gasser. May lasted only three innings in his NLDS start. Gasser wasn’t much better, pitching four.
With the majority of the innings expected to be pitched by the bullpen, the Brewers were likely hoping to minimize the group’s exposure in a game started by Misirowski. The more their high-leverage relievers pitch, the more fatigued they will be later in the series and the more the Dodgers’ hitters will become familiar with them.
DL Hall finished the fifth inning, after which Murphy turned the game over to the Big Three of the Brewers’ bullpen.
Abner Uribe, the team’s second-best reliever, pitched the sixth.
Aaron Ashby, who pitched the second-most relief innings in the majors during the regular season, covered the seventh and eighth.
Closer Trevor Megill took care of the ninth.
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani scores a run during the second inning. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The Brewers will have to run this back three more times over the next eight days, which will be extraordinarily difficult against a team with as much experience and depth as the Dodgers.
Can the Brewers take this across the finish line?
Whether they can or not, they promise to scratch and claw until the final out of the series is recorded. The Dodgers know that.
“We didn’t necessarily expect a sweep,” Kiké Hernández said. “It’s gonna be a good series.”
A series that will probably end up back at American Family Field for Game 6, perhaps even Game 7.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brice Turang homered off Tarik Skubal and Milwaukee’s bullpen shut down the Los Angeles Dodgers after Jacob Misiorowski’s taxing outing, sending the Brewers to a 2-1 victory in the NL Championship Series opener on Sunday night.
Luis Lara hit a tiebreaking single off Skubal in the fifth inning as Milwaukee took Game 1 in the first NLCS matchup of 100-win teams since the Cincinnati Reds eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies in 1976. The Brewers had dropped seven consecutive postseason games against the Dodgers, including a sweep in last year’s NLCS.
Game 2 is on Monday in Milwaukee. Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts for the Dodgers, and Logan Henderson takes the mound for the Brewers.
Los Angeles, looking to become the first team to win three straight championships since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, grounded into three double plays, stranded nine runners and went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 2 for 22 in the playoffs.
DL Hall replaced Misiorowski with a runner aboard and got Freddie Freeman to ground into a double play, sending a charge through the rollicking crowd of 42,617. Abner Uribe allowed two hits in the sixth, then struck out Andy Pages with runners on the corners for the final out of the inning.
Aaron Ashby pitched two innings before Trevor Megill got three outs for the save. Kyle Tucker and pinch-hitter Josue De Paula walked with two down in the ninth before Mookie Betts flied to the center-field warning track.
The Brewers are among five current teams that have never won it all.
The Dodgers made Misiorowski throw 35 pitches in the second inning. Pages drove in Shohei Ohtani on a grounded single into right field, and Tucker loaded the bases when he reached on a 10-pitch walk that included four foul balls.
But Misiorowski limited the damage when he got Kiké Hernández to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
Turang responded with a leadoff drive into the home bullpen in the fourth. It was the second career postseason homer for Turang, who went 1 for 15 with six strikeouts in last year’s NLCS.
Sticking with the same brand of baseball that resulted in the majors’ best record this year, Milwaukee went ahead to stay in the fifth.
Garrett Mitchell reached on a leadoff walk and advanced on rookie Cooper Pratt’s sacrifice bunt. Lara, another rookie, then grounded an RBI single into center field. The Brewers loaded the bases with two down, but Skubal escaped the jam when William Contreras flied to right.
Up Next
Yamamoto is 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 postseason appearances. The Japanese right-hander pitched a three-hitter in a 5-1 victory at Milwaukee in Game 2 of last year’s NLCS.
Henderson is making his second career postseason start. The right-hander tossed five-plus innings of two-run ball in Milwaukee’s 4-3 win over San Diego in Game 2 of their NL Division Series. He went 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in two starts against Los Angeles this season.
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal wipes his face while headed to the dugout after giving up a run in the fifth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
First and foremost, the Dodgers wanted Tarik Skubal on their team. When they pursued him at the trade deadline, they saw him as the rare player who could improve their odds of winning a third straight World Series.
It didn’t hurt that by acquiring him they prevented other postseason contenders, including the Milwaukee Brewers, from landing the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Dodgers guaranteed that they wouldn’t have to face him in October.
“I’m sure it’s in the back of your head, the teams that are interested,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Sunday before the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. “Certainly not a driver, but not nothing either. As far as how happy I am, I am very happy it’s Skubal versus Miz and not Miz and Skubal [for the Brewers] in the next two.”
That sentiment rang even truer when the Dodgers dropped Game 1 at American Family Field, despite forcing “Miz” — Jacob Misiorowski, the NL Cy Young favorite — out of the game in just 4⅓ innings, and despite having Skubal, who struck out seven in five innings but gave up two runs in a fine effort, on their side.
“That’s our job, trying to get the starter, especially when you’re facing a guy like him, out of the game early,” said left fielder Teoscar Hernández, who logged two hits against Misiorowski. “I think we did a pretty good job, we just didn’t get the job done when we needed with guys in scoring position.”
The Dodgers hit into three inning-ending double plays in the first five innings and overall left nine men on base, going one for six with runners in scoring position.
In a role reversal, the Dodgers, who scored almost exclusively via the home run in the first round, pulled ahead with a pesky approach at the plate.
Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani opened the second inning with a four-pitch walk. Then Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages hit opposite-field singles to move Ohtani around the bases and give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
Taking a similar “grind him out” approach to the one they deployed against Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale in Game 3 of the Division Series, the Dodgers forced Misiorowski to throw 35 pitches in the inning — 10 alone to Kyle Tucker, who worked a walk.
By the third inning, Misiorowski’s fastball velocity, which touched 104 mph, had dropped to double digits. And though the Dodgers didn’t score again against him, they continued to rack up his pitch count. By the time he exited with one out in the fifth, it was at 94.
The Brewers, known for their peskiness, instead tied the score with one swing against Skubal. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brice Turang got the barrel of his bat to an inside sinker and lifted it over the fence in left-center, into the Brewers’ bullpen.
“A 2-0 sinker in, I mean, I’m going to live with that, left-on-left,” Skubal said. “He put a good swing on it. The first at-bat he broke his bat [on a similar pitch], ground ball.”
Though the Brewers have players who can hit home runs, they pulled ahead the next inning with a sequence more closely aligned with their identity.
Skubal walked Garrett Mitchell on five pitches. Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt moved him into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. And then Luis Lara sent a ground-ball single through the middle of the infield to drive in the go-ahead run.
“The leadoff walk just can’t happen,” Skubal said. “It gives them an opportunity to create something, and ultimately that’s all they needed today.”
Skubal battled traffic to get out of the inning without giving up another run. But in such a tight game, that marked the end of his start.
The American Family Field atmosphere added an extra charge to the close contest. The home crowd was perhaps its loudest (until an ear-splitting cheer at the final out) when it took issue with a balk call against Misiorowski. It looked as if he had picked off Hernández to end the fourth inning, but Hernández instead was awarded second base.
The Brewers' Jake Bauers is tagged out by Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernández after he was caught too far off first base by by pitcher Alex Vesia. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
That play still was seared into their collective memory when Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia picked off Jake Bauers at first base. Brewers fans shouted “balk!” over and over.
The bullpens battled to a scoreless draw, the Dodgers’ last stand falling flat after Tucker and pinch-hitting rookie Josue De Paula drew a pair of two-out walks against Trevor Megill. Mookie Betts drove a deep fly ball to the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd, until Mitchell closed his glove around it. So the edge the Brewers gained against Skubal held.
“You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,” Roberts said after the game. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to. We’ve just got to reset. We’ve got our guy going [Monday], who we trust undoubtedly, and we’ve got to win a baseball game.”
That guy is right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who last year threw a complete game at American Family Field in Game 2 of the NLCS.
The road doesn’t get much easier for the Dodgers’ offense Monday, when it’ll face right-hander Logan Henderson, who held the Dodgers to one run in seven innings when the Brewers came to Los Angeles in August. But imagine if instead the Brewers had outbid the Dodgers and they had to go through Skubal first.
“It would look really different,” manager Dave Roberts said Saturday. “What those guys do — they had the best record in baseball. Certainly when you’re talking about a seven-game series, to see Tarik on the other side … the series would look a lot different.”
MILWAUKEE (AP) — It was a really challenging night for Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski.
The front-runner for the NL Cy Young Award labored just to make it to the fifth inning of the NL Championship Series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night.
Los Angeles fouled off 21 of his 94 pitches by the time his final batter, Mookie Betts, reached on a one-out walk in the fifth. The 24-year-old allowed one run and five hits.
The 6-foot-7 right-hander threw 44 pitches at 100 mph or higher, reaching 104 mph on his initial offering to Freddie Freeman in the first. The Dodgers swung at 27 of his 62 fastballs, fouling off 16 and missing just five.
Misiorowski went 16-5 with a major league-low 1.80 ERA in 30 starts this season while averaging 100.6 mph with his four-seam fastball. He also led the majors with 252 strikeouts in 174 2/3 innings.
He struck out five and walked three in his second start this postseason. He tossed four innings of two-run ball in Milwaukee’s 3-2 win over San Diego in Game 1 of their NL Division Series on Oct. 3, reaching triple digits on 52 of 88 pitches.
Misiorowski was helped by three inning-ending double plays against Los Angeles, including Kiké Hernández’s bouncer to shortstop with the bases loaded in the second.
DL Hall replaced Misiorowski and got Freeman to ground into a double play, delighting the yellow towel-waving crowd of 42,617.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Shane McClanahan will not pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays in the postseason.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said Sunday the left-hander will not be added to the AL Championship Series roster after pitching 118 innings this year in his return following a two-year absence.
McClanahan had Tommy John surgery and then a nerve issue that forced him to miss 2024 and 2025. He was 10-7 with a 3.36 ERA in 24 starts this season before being placed on the injured list with left forearm tightness in early September.
“He’s a healthy pitcher. We are incredibly appreciative and grateful for the contributions that he gave us to get us to this point,” Cash said. “I don’t think any of us could have envisioned that he was going to get to that 120-inning mark and do it in a pretty dominant fashion. I mean, I think he’s got to be up there for Comeback Player of the Year with the time that he missed.
“But felt it made the most sense that his season is over. He’s going to go into the season as a healthy pitcher. Right now, he’s really focused on being the best teammate, which he does that pretty seamlessly and cheering his buddies on.”
The Rays host the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of the ALCS on Monday night.
MILWAUKEE –– The Dodgers did almost everything right early on Sunday night.
Key word: Almost.
In Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, in a marquee pitching matchup between a reigning two-time Cy Young Award winner and this year’s presumptive recipient of such hardware, the Dodgers came in with a clear game plan against the Milwaukee Brewers and their young stud ace, Jacob Misiorowski.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani greets teammates prior to Game 1. AP Photo/Abbie ParrMilwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski pitches during the first inning. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
They wanted to stress Misiorowski’s pitch count by working tough, long at-bats. They wanted to shorten their swing against his 105 mph fastball and hit balls the other way. They wanted to get him out of the game quickly and let their own ace, Tarik Skubal, pitch with a lead.
“Try to make him earn,” infielder Kiké Hernández said. “Make him grind it out.”
On almost all accounts, they were successful.
There was just one problem.
“We didn’t score enough,” Hernández sighed.
Indeed, in a 2-1 loss at American Family Field that put the Brewers in front to open this best-of-seven series, the Dodgers wasted chance after chance against Misiorowski and the Brewers’ stout bullpen, hitting into three double-plays, stranding nine men on base, and squandering an early lead en route to a Game 1 defeat.
It almost did, of course, with the Dodgers putting together the kind of quality at-bats that have become a trademark of their October offense.
Misiorowski needed 94 pitches to get through only 4 ⅓ innings. He gave up five hits, four of them to the opposite field. He topped out at 104 mph with his fastball, yet got the Dodgers to whiff on only five of their 27 swings against it.
“I thought our approach was really great,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said.
However, after an RBI single from Andy Pages in the second inning, the team wouldn’t score again.
Instead, the Brewers rallied in front of a raucous home crowd, tying the score on Brice Turang’s solo home run in the fourth before taking the lead on an RBI single from Luis Lara in the fifth.
Those were the only real mistakes Skubal made in his five-inning, seven-strikeout outing. But in a game that saw the two bullpens combine for 7 ⅔ scoreless frames –– a potential preview of things to come this series –– that would be two too many to prevent a Game 1 defeat.
“It’s gonna be a good series,” Kiké Hernández said. “For us, it’s a matter of turning the page and coming back being ready to play tomorrow.”
Granted, Sunday’s opener was always more important for the Brewers –– who were trying to protect home-field advantage, and needed to capitalize on Misiorowski’s start given the lack of star power in their rotation behind him.
Still, the result will sting for the Dodgers, after they seemingly had the game where they wanted it early, only to cede control with their costly string of missed opportunities.
Fans cheer prior to Game 1 of baseball’s National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. AP Photo/Kyla Wolf
The Dodgers spent Saturday’s off-day workout prepping for Misiorowski’s unprecedented fastball velocity, using a drill Albert Pujols introduced to the team in 2021 –– in which they took swings against a velocity machine from several steps in front of home plate –– to calibrate their approach against his triple-digit heat.
From the start, the strategy paid off. Just like against Braves ace Chris Sale in the NL Division Series, the Dodgers extended at-bats and created stress repeatedly.
In the first, Freeman singled on a line drive the other way, though that was negated by a Will Smith inning-ending double-play (extending what is now a 1-for-19 postseason drought for him).
In the next at-bat, Kyle Tucker continued the grind, battling his way to a 10-pitch walk that kept the rally going.
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani scores a run during the second inning. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Suddenly, with the bases loaded and Misiorowski nearing 40 pitches in the second inning alone, it appeared the Dodgers were on the verge of a knockout blow.
They would regret not making it come to fruition.
Instead, Kiké Hernández bounced into another double-play that allowed Misiorowski to escape the danger, representing a turning point that even Hernández felt “changed the game.”
Misiorowski’s pitch count continued to climb in the third (when Betts hit a leadoff single) and the fourth (when Teoscar Hernández hit a leadoff single, then was gifted second on a controversial balk call that negated a pick-off), but the Dodgers again failed to add to the lead.
In the fifth, he was finally chased from the mound afrer a one-out walk from Betts. But even then, Freeman hit into yet another double-play four pitches later against reliever DL Hall.
In case you had forgotten, the Dodgers hit into more double-plays (128) than any other NL team in the regular season.
“I don’t think it was anything about frustration,” Teoscar Hernández said. “It’s just, we need to be better with guys in scoring position.”
On Sunday, the trend would quickly prove costly.
After three dominant innings to start the game from Skubal –– who struck out six of his first nine batters, including three on three pitches –– Brice Turang stayed inside a tailing 2-0 sinker to leadoff the fourth and deposited it in the Brewers’ left-field bullpen.
Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang (2) celebrates a solo home run. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The solo blast tied the game. It awoke a sold-out, yellow-towel-waving crowd at American Family Field. And it set the stage for the Brewers to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth.
All around Milwaukee’s home ballpark, signs have displayed the club’s slogan for this October: “Win Our Way.”
In the fifth, the Brewers showed what that meant.
Epitomizing their style of so-called Brewer Ball, the club’s small-ball offense put its identity on display. Garrett Mitchell drew a leadoff walk. Cooper Pratt bunted him to second. Then, with a short swing on a hanging first-pitch changeup, Luis Lara bounced an RBI single back up the middle.
It was something out of seemingly nothing –– a reminder of how the Brewers, with their bottom-10 payroll of $123 million, ranked second in the majors in scoring this year (despite hitting the second-fewest number of home runs).
“They’re a good baseball team,” Skubal said. “They do that type of stuff.”
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal looks toward the plate after giving up a home run. AP Photo/Abbie Parr
The Brewers almost broke the game open after that, later loading the bases with two outs while inflicting their own damage on Skubal’s pitch count. And though Skubal would get out of it, he wouldn’t return for the sixth, removed after 80 throws in the shortest start of his postseason career.
Four Brewers relievers, meanwhile, would make the 2-1 lead stand up, stranding more runners in the sixth (when Pages struck out against Abner Uribe with runners on the corners), the eighth (after Smith drew a walk) and once again in the ninth (when closer Trevor Megill walked two batters with the bases loaded, including pinch-hitting rookie sensation Josue De Paula, before finally ending the game on a flyout from Betts).
So often, they almost seemed to get to the Brewers.
But in the end, it was Milwaukee that executed its game plan more clinically, drawing first blood in an NLCS rematch that already looks nothing like last year’s Dodgers sweep.
“You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,” Roberts said. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to. We’ve just got to reset.”
MILWAUKEE, WI - OCTOBER 11: Garrett Mitchell #5 of the Milwaukee Brewers runs home to score and take the lead in the fifth inning during Game One of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on Sunday, October 11, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
A pair of long inning cut short the promised battle of aces in Game 1 of the National League Championship, but the overall adage that runs would be hard to come by still proved true. Both teams scratched across a single run in their big innings, but the Brewers added a solo home run which was the difference in a 2-1 win over the Dodgers on Sunday night at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
Tarik Skubal struck out six batters his first time through Milwaukee’s batting order, stranding Jake Bauers after a one-out double in the second inning, the only batter to reach base in the first three innings against the left-hander.
Brewers second baseman Brice Turang made his mark in the field with a tremendous stop and throw well behind the bag to get Mookie Betts in the first inning, then made a lightning-fast turn on a double play which ended a big Dodgers rally in the second.
Then Turang got Milwaukee on the board with a leadoff home run in the fourth inning, going other way to left center field off Skubal to tie the game at 1-1.
The fifth inning was the stressful one for Skubal, with his only two walks of the game. The first one — Garrett Mitchell — was sacrificed to second base then driven home on a single by No. 9-hitter Luis Lara, giving the Brewers their first lead. A single and walk loaded the bases with two outs but William Contreras flew out to strand three.
Skubal escaped the big inning but needed 26 pitches in the fifth alone, and that was his final frame. After his first time through the order, Skubal allowed four hits and two walks to his next 12 batters, with one strikeout.
The Dodgers knew they were in for a battle against likely National League Cy Young Award-winner Jacob Misiorowski, who throws in triple digits more than anyone else and is usually a nightmare to face. They tried a deliberate approach.
“It’s more a little bit conceding the slug, hitting the ball out front, to then seeing the ball a little bit longer to spoil pitches, to shoot the ball the other way. That’s how you’ve got to beat this guy,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Milwaukee before Sunday’s game. “To think you’re going to catch him out front and pull it in the air is bananas.”
This was a plan similar to what the Dodgers used against Chris Sale in Game 3 of the Division Series last Tuesday, and got him out of the game after five innings, with three runs in the bank.
The Dodgers made Misiorowski work, fouling off 21 pitches and running six different three-ball counts, three of the latter in the second inning alone. The Dodgers scored a run in that inning and had the bases loaded but couldn’t get more in a 35-pitch frame by the big right-hander.
Misiorowski needed 94 pitches to get his 13 outs, none of the five innings in which he appeared a clean one, with five singles and three walks allowed. But the Dodgers were only able to plate one run against the Brewers, thanks in part to grounding into three double plays in the first five innings alone.
The Dodgers led the National League this season with 128 double plays, third-most in the majors.
In relief
Two Dodgers singled in the sixth inning against Abner Uribe but did not score, and Will Smith walked against Aaron Ashby in the eighth against the Brewers bullpen, with four pitchers combining for 13 outs to close out the game.
Closer Trevor Megill walked Kyle Tucker with two outs in the ninth to keep the game going, then 21-year-old pinch-hitter Josue De Paula did the same to keep the game going. But Mookie Betts flew out to end the game.
Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, and Tanner Scott combined for three scoreless innings of their own, with six strikeouts, with only a single and one unintentional walk allowed (plus two intentional free passes, who were stranded). Scoring against these bullpens should be difficult. Now it’s just a matter of seeing if relative early access to relievers in Game 1 bears fruit later in the NLCS.
But the Brewers got the win in front of them on Sunday, and lead the NLCS, one game to none.
Both Yamamoto and Henderson have allowed 18 earned runs since the All-Star break — in 84 1/3 innings over 12 starts with 86 strikeouts for Yamamoto, and in 75 innings over 13 starts with 80 strikeouts for Henderson.
MILWAUKEE — It was Milwaukee Brewer baseball on full display Sunday evening, showing the baseball world why they’ve won more games than any team in baseball the past two seasons.
They also showed the Los Angeles Dodgers that this edition of the Brewers won’t be the pushover that embarrassed themselves in the National League Championship Series a year ago.
The Brewers, playing the style of baseball that earned them 103 victories this season, stunned the Dodgers with a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the NLCS in front of a sellout crowd of 42,617 at American Family Field.
They pitched, with ace Jacob Misiorowski permitting one run in 4 ⅓ innings while their bullpen came in and pitched 4 ⅔ shutout innings.
The Brewers produced only six hits, but they worked their pesky magic.
They bunted.
They executed the hit-and-run.
They attempted stolen bases.
They even showed they could homer, with second baseman Brice Turang hitting his first postseason longball.
And now, for the first time in five years, the Dodgers are facing a deficit in the NLCS in their bid to become the first National League team to win three consecutive pennants since the 1942-1944 St. Louis Cardinals. And no National League has ever won three consecutive World Series titles.
“I think the organization is fantastic …,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gushed about the Brewers. “They play baseball. They play baseball the way it was intended. They value 90 feet. They take extra bases. They defend well. They're athletic. They prevent runs with really good pitching and then with the defense layered in. They don't give pitches away. They hit to all fields.
“And with that, they're in every game."
The Brewers became the first team to keep two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal from completing six innings in his eight career postseason games. Skubal still showed just why he was the most wanted man at the trade deadline, and why he’ll become the richest pitcher in baseball history this winter when he hits free agency, but the Brewers forced him to throw 81 pitches and beat him playing small ball in the fifth inning.
The Brewers showed off their playbook going ahead in the fifth with Garrett Mitchell drawing a leadoff walk. Rookie Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt. And fellow rookie Luis Lara drove in Mitchell by slapping a single up the middle, giving the Brewers a 2-1 lead. They threatened to blow the game open when they loaded the bases, but Skubal escaped the jam when William Contreras flied out to right field.
It was certainly a relief for the Brewers, who badly wanted Skubal, too, at the trade deadline. The Brewers put in what they thought was an aggressive bid, but it just wasn’t as good as the Dodgers’ offer.
“I thought that if they wanted to outbid us, they could," Brewers owner Mark Attanasio told USA TODAY Sports, “”but because of the team they have and the depth of the team they have. It would be easier for them to add that extra prospect.
“The Dodgers run an exceptional organization. Yes, it's not easy to be that exceptional, and they're exceptional in everything. That's not easy. Yeah, they're getting showered with money. Well, why do you think they have all this money? Because they've been so smart in their business."
Certainly, Skubal could still change the fate of this series, with Skubal scheduled to go in Game 5, but Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, dreaded the idea of having to face Skubal and Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski, too.
“I’m very happy it’s Skubal vs. Miz,’’ Friedman before the game, “and not Miz and Skubal in the next two.’’
Just as the San Diego Padres did in the NL Division Series, the Dodgers copied the same blueprint and also wore down Misiorowski early.
Misiorowski threw 69 pitches just to get through the first three innings – including 35 pitches in the second inning when the Dodgers scored their lone run. They could have blown it open but Enrique Hernandez grounded into a bases-loaded double play to end the inning.
While the Padres fouled off 29 of Misiorowski’s 88 pitches in their game, the Dodgers fouled off 16 of Misiorowski’s first 69 pitches and 21 in the game. Misiorowski, who allowed eight baserunners, threw 94 pitches and lasted just 4 innings.
No problem.
The Brewers turned to their vaunted bullpen, and the firm of DL Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill closed it out.
“I think the success they've had over the last handful of years, the deepness of their roster,’’ Friedman said, “really stands out. It's hard over 162 to do what they've done. .. I think there's really not a glaring weakness. So 1 through 26, they can beat you in a lot of different ways. Those are the kind of things that I feel like you need in October.
“If you're just reliant on hitting a homer, tough way to live life. They just have so many different ways to do it."
The Dodgers certainly aren’t panicking, not with World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for Game 2. They also are accustomed to comebacks, down 3 games to 2 to the Toronto Blue Jays in last year’s World Series, only to cross the border going home with a World Series trophy.
“Once you get through the marathon and you get to the sprint of the postseason,’’ Roberts said, “advantage goes to us in the sense of the experience.’’
Then again, now that the Brewers are back in the NLCS, they’re starting to get that experience, too.
“They’re playing with confidence," Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said, “so that may have been all they needed. To get real experience, and a real taste of it, and now they know what they have to do.”
Skubal’s outing was successful for the Dodgers at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner was brought to Los Angeles with the intention of having him strengthen the pitching depth and rotation for the postseason.
He was acquired by the Dodgers in a blockbuster trade with the Detroit Tigers in early August, sending outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handed pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit.
Skubal allowed his first hit in Game 1 to right-handed hitter Andrew Vaughn in the bottom of the second inning. Vaughn was eventually left stranded at third base after Skubal struck out Cooper Pratt.
Skubal was dominant to start, striking out six batters through the first three innings. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Skubal with Alex Vesia to start the bottom of the sixth inning.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy chose to insert Vaughn into the lineup as the designated hitter instead of Christian Yelich, a left-handed batter for the Brewers. The decision was influenced by Vaughn's success against left-handed pitchers such as Skubal.
Here's how Skubal fared in NLCS Game 1 win over the Brewers:
Jacob Misiorowski pumped his fist in the air. After struggling to locate his stuff for most of the night, the Milwaukee Brewers ace got Shohei Ohtani to bite on back-to-back perfectly placed pitches: a 91-mph slider just below the zone that Ohtani would've needed a golf swing for, followed by a 100.8 mph fastball right on the upper inside corner of the plate for strike three to get out of the top of the third inning.
He needed that one.
The Brewers gave the ball to the 24-year-old Cy Young frontrunner in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, trusting him to set the tone for a rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did just that at first with a 12-pitch first inning, but things quickly unraveled from there.
The Miz's command slipped away from him in the second inning, with the break on his fastball down two inches and his slider down three. The Dodgers, for their part, were more than happy to watch Misiorowski miss the zone. Shohei Ohtani walked on four pitches to lead off the frame; he came around to score the first run of the game on singles from Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages. Kyle Tucker then worked a 10-pitch walk to load the bases, but the Miz was able to get out of the jam by getting Kiké Hernández to ground into a double play to retire the side after throwing 35 pitches.
In addition to issues with his command, Misiorowski struggled to put guys away with two strikes. Furthermore, the MLB's strikeout leader this season couldn't draw swings-and-misses early on with just four total whiffs through his 47 pitches in the first two innings. He started to look more like himself in his final two frames, though, getting five strikeouts but his whiff rate Sunday was still a mere 24%.
Nevertheless, Misiorowski was able to settle in, limiting the damage to just one earned run in 4.1 innings. But with 94 pitches thrown, five hits and three walks allowed in that timeframe, that was the most the Brewers could ask from their ace as the Miz got a standing ovation at American Family Field when he walked off the mound.
DL Hall entered the game in his place, inheritng Mookie Betts on first base with one out in the inning.
Despite not having his best outing, Misiorowski somehow did enough to keep the Brewers in it with Tarik Skubal on the opposite mound. Brice Turang rewarded his efforts with a solo home run off of Skubal to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
"As he's matured this year, you've seen huge changes in this kid on how he's handled situations," manager Pat Murphy told reporters pregame. "He's not just excited to get out of the first. He doesn't want to burn any more energy. He wants to get out of the seventh."
A year ago, Jacob Misiorowski wasn't sure if he would make the postseason roster for the Milwaukee Brewers. He did, making three solid outings out of the bullpen before the Brewers were ultimately swept out of the NLCS by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This year, though, Misiorowski emerged as an ace, and one of the best in baseball at that.
If you ask him, not much has changed mechanically over the past year. The Miz is still a flamethrower with a fastball topping out at 105 mph (his first pitch on Sunday was a 102 mph heater), and now he's much more comfortable attacking the strike zone with his stuff. He attributes that to simply being more confident with a year of big league experience under his belt.
"The only thing is confidence," he told reporters on Saturday. "I think that was the big one. Going into last year's postseason, I didn't know if I was going to be on the roster. I didn't know if I was going to make it and help the team. This year they trust me a little bit more. So it's a little easier to get behind yourself."
Here's how Misiorowski fared in Sunday's outing against the Dodgers:
Jacob Misiorowski stats today Dodgers
Innings pitched: 4.1
Hits allowed: 5
Runs allowed: 1
Earned runs allowed: 1
Walks: 3
Strikeouts: 5
Pitches thrown: 94
Strikes thrown: 60
Jacob Misiorowski highlights
Jacob Misiorowski gets Kiké Hernández to ground into an inning-ending double play to limit the damage in the 1st pic.twitter.com/z9ST5lyO3g
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 03: Tarik Skubal #29 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches against the Atlanta Braves in game one of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 03, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Are you ready for a rematch of the 2025 NLCS? The Dodgers swept the Brewers in last year’s NLCS in easy fashion. The Brewers scored just four runs in the series, one in each game. I, like most baseball fans I suspect, hope they can do better this time around.
The final four teams standing are the Dodgers, Brewers, Rays, and Guardians. That’s a team that has won the last two World Series, two teams that have never won, and a team that last won in 1948. Unless you are a full-time Dodgers fan, rooting for them in this postseason is a bad look.
In the regular season, the Brewers went 4-3 against the Dodgers. It was a very even series; the Dodgers outscored them 27-25. The Brewers are the top seed in all of baseball this year with 103 wins. They were also the top seed last year but it didn’t help them much.
Tonight’s pitching matchup is dreamy, to say the least. The Dodgers are sending out Tarik Skubal, the two-time reigning AL Cy Young. For the Brewers, it’s Jacob Misiorowski, who led the league in ERA, WHIP, and strikeouts this season. He regularly throws over 100 mph, and I mean regularly. It’s a pitching matchup that makes me feel like the Orioles getting their own Championship Series is so far away.
MILWAUKEE, WI - OCTOBER 13: A general view of the jumbotron with the 2025 NLCS logo on display during batting practice prior to Game One of the National League Championship Series presented by loanDepot between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on Monday, October 13, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Guardians completed the come from behind victory to eliminate this year’s version of 2023’s D-backs, and also prove that the Pope is not, in fact, infallible. So we are down to the final four. In the American League, the Rays host the Guardians, with that series getting under way tomorrow. But we begin with the National League, and we’ll see if the Brewers can knock off the Dodgers, after being swept by them here in 2026. They did win more games in the regular season, and took the season series 4-3. Curiously each side won the road series while losing the home one.
The Brewers did beat Tarik Skubal on August 16, though he allowed only one run over six innings that day. Jacob Misiorowski had the same line the previous day, and got the W, so…. This one might be the best pitching match-up of the season. Should be a fun one.
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Milwaukee Brewers (0-0): 5 pm, FOX/FOX One
Milwaukee, WI - October 10, 2026: Player Kike´ Hernandez on the field as the LA Dodgers conduct an off day workout before game one of the National League Championship Series against the Brewers at American Family Field, Milwaukee, WI on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
For the second year in a row, the Dodgers and Brewers begin the National League Championship Series in Milwaukee.
