Category: Sports News

Just like that, the Milwaukee Brewers have tied Game 2 of the NLCS right back up.

William Contreras made up for the Brewers' defensive mishaps in the top of the fifth inning on Monday with one swing of the bat. Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Kris Bubic left a 94.8 mph fastball down the middle on the second pitch of the at bat, and Contreras put his barrel on it, driving the ball so deep to center field that all Andy Pages could do was turn and watch as it bounced off the bottom of the scoreboard.

WILD BILL GOES OFF THE SCOREBOARD pic.twitter.com/tLgKSYREhX

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 12, 2026

It was Contreras' third home run of the postseason, and arguably his most important one so far as the Brewers try to take a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series before it shifts to Los Angeles.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: William Contreras hits HR vs. Dodgers, ties up NLCS Game 2 in fifth inning

The MLB playoffs are inching closer to the World Series as the National League Champion Series continues with Game 2 on Monday, Oct. 12.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the defending champions and are one of the winningest franchises in all of baseball with nine World Series titles.

The Dodgers are taking on the Milwaukee Brewers, a mid-size market team that doesn't have quite a storied history. The Brewers' biggest claim to fame is baseball trail blazer and former home run king Hank Aaron. Other star players like CC Sabathia, Rollie Fingers, Don Sutton, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor have helped bring the club success and accolades.

After winning the first game of the NLCS, the Brewers are three victories away from reaching the World Series. They got here as the No. 1 seed in the National League with a 103-59 record. Milwaukee earned a bye in the wild card round and then beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 in the National League Division Series.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s been a force to be reckoned with in the postseason just had the shortest playoff outing in his career.

Yamamoto went 2 ⅔ innings while throwing 75 pitches, and gave up three runs, four hits, two walks, and had one strikeout in Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday night.

Before Monday, Yamamoto’s shortest outing happened in his playoffs debut against the San Diego Padres in 2024.

In the third inning of a tied 1-1 ballgame, the Brewers figured out the reigning World Series MVP as they were heavily working the count against him.

Before facing Christian Yelich as his final batter, Yamamoto had a 12-pitch battle against Jake Bauers.

Facing a 3-2 count, Bauers fouled off six pitches in a row until a ball was thrown in the dirt, which resulted in him being walked and loading the bases. According to the FOX broadcast, it was longest at-bat of Bauers’ career.

The war with Bauers came before he threw a combined 22 pitches to David Hamilton, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras during the inning.

With Hamilton, Turang, and Bauers still on the basepaths, Yamamoto gave up a two-RBI single to Yelich, giving the Brewers an early 3-2 lead.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts then came out and pulled Yamamoto from the game. Afterward, Roberts was asked why he pulled his postseason legend so early.

“For me, I felt we had to stop the damage right there.”

Lefty specialist Alex Vesia replaced Yamamoto, and did his job admirably, stopping the Dodgers’ bleeding by striking out Garrett Mitchell to end the inning.

Los Angeles quickly responded to the deficit by tacking on two runs following an errored throw by Logan Henderson in the fifth inning.

Unlike Game 1 of this NLCS, this game is going to be a marathon decided by the bullpens.

Go Rays!

The Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-1 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the top of the third inning in Game 2 of the NLCS on a pair of defensive lapses by the home team.

Tommy Edman led off the frame with a single. Mookie Betts followed with a grounder to short that could've been a double play, but the ball deflected off the heel of Cooper Pratt's glove and found grass in shallow left field to put the first two runners on.

Freddie Freeman came dangerously close to bringing them both home when he barreled a low changeup from Brewers starter Logan Henderson 106.1 mph over Sal Frelick's head in right field for what looked to be a surefire extra base hit, but Frelick – a Gold Glove winner in 2024 – made an incredible catch, leaping up and reaching behind him to pluck the line drive out of the air for an out. Edman was able to tag up and reach third, which proved to be crucial for what came next.

With Betts on first and second base open, he suddenly represented a threat to steal with one out in the inning. Henderson attempted to pick off the eight-time All-Star, but spiked the ball in front of first baseman Jake Bauers. The ball rolled deep into foul territory, giving Edman more than enough space to score the go-ahead run from third.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers take advantage of Brewers' defensive lapses, retake lead in wild inning

Now that we’re in the offseason, it’s time to shift our focus to a possible event on the horizon that may be even more daunting than the MLB postseason.

The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the MLB Players Association expires on December 1st, and if the two sides don’t reach an agreement by then, a lockout will ensue. What does this mean? Well, it means that no games will occur until both MLB and MLBPA find a way to make it work. I recently had the opportunity to ask a former ballplayer about the subject, and he was happy to share his take on the situation.

There have been a few lockouts over the course of MLB history, but the longest was in 1994, when a player strike halted regular season and postseason games for 232 days. Ryan Howard, Phillies legend and 2008 World Series Champion, spoke with Pinstripe Alley on the matter and shared his perspective on the impact the lockout could have on the game and league as a whole.

“When it comes to that, you want what’s best for the game,” Howard told Pinstripe Alley. “When you look back at the lockout back in ‘94, I think the game was in such an amazing place. Then once that happened, it hurt the game.”

To Howard’s point, the game is in a similar spot as it was in 1994, where viewership is trending in the right direction. Fox Sports reported that it averaged 3.2 million viewers for the first two games of the NL Division Series involving the Braves and Dodgers, as well as the Padres and Brewers, according to Front Office Sports. Fox Sports also reported that the network set a 10-year viewership high during last year’s AL Division Series between the Yankees and Blue Jays as well as the Tigers and Mariners.

Howard also shared that he doesn’t believe there will be a lockout, and that both sides will have to make concessions to move forward with the 2027 regular season as scheduled.

Despite the Yankees exiting earlier than anticipated, we might as well enjoy this MLB postseason while it lasts. Who knows, but we should all prepare for the possibility of a lockout and seeing silence on the diamond come March 24th.