LOS ANGELES — They couldn’t move at first, almost in a state of shock, then looked around at one another, gasped and finally started making their way to the middle of the field.
It happened.
Really, it happened.
The Milwaukee Brewers, the Lil' Team that Could, pulled off one of the most stunning four-game sweeps in baseball history Thursday, ousting the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, and ending their title dynasty at Dodger Stadium with a 6-4 victory.
The Brewers, for the first time in 44 years, are going to the World Series, with Brewers play-by-play announcer Jeff Levering screaming over the air: "The Brewers win the pennant! OH MY God, the Brewers win the pennant! The World Series will go through Wisconsin."
"This still doesn’t feel real," said a dazed Jake Bauers, MVP of the National League Championship Series. "This definitely feels like a movie. I don’t even know where I’m at right now."
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Bauers was quitting baseball just two years ago, returning only to get health insurance coverage for his pregnant wife, and now he was the best player on a field littered with all-stars and future Hall of Famers in Dodgers uniforms.
Then, there was Brewers manager Pat Murphy, a collegiate coach at Arizona State and Notre Dame, who spent eight seasons as Brewers bench coach under Craig Counsell, only to be promoted when Counsell bolted for the Chicago Cubs’ riches. Now the two-time NL manager of the year, is standing on the stage holding the NLCS trophy, grabbing the mic and addressing the frenzied Brewers' fans.
"They have a bunch of Hall of Famers," Murphy said, “but we have a lot of gamers.
"And the gamers won."
Mic drop.
Oh, did they ever, beating the mighty Dodgers in every facet of the game, in front of 49,104 stunned fans at Dodger Stadium, the site where their season abruptly ended last year, a story made in the shadows of Hollywood.
"To do that at Dodger Stadium, against a team that good, that poised, that rooted in tradition, the Hall of Famers they have on the team, the types of people they have on the team," Murphy said, "that’s no easy task.
"But we just did."
Believe it, Milwaukee, for the first time since the days of the Harvey’s Wallbangers, you’re going to the World Series.
What do you think they’re doing in Milwaukee now, Bauers was asked, completely drenched from beer and champagne?
"I think they’re drinking," he said, laughing. "They’re drinking just like us. I kid you not. They’re drinking."
Hey, you better believe it, with all of Wisconsin celebrating as if the Green Bay Packers just won the Super Bowl, never believing this could actually be a reality.
Not against the mighty Dodgers, a team with more than twice the Brewers' payroll and enough hardware to fill a Milwaukee brewery.
"Let's be honest," Murphy said, "nobody had us coming in here doing it. Then, the fashion that we did it, got behind and won. You know that thing for me. That's that tells the character of a team."
The Dodgers were up 4-0 in the second inning when Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer, and Dodger Stadium was literally shaking, believing that Ohtani found his superman cape again, and would ignite a historic comeback from their three-games-to-none deficit.
"I thought, 'Oh my God, we just woke up a giant,' you know what I mean?" Murphy said. "You don’t wake the giant up, and we woke up the giant. I’m like, wow, we’re going to have our hands full. He’s one of the greatest players that ever lived.
"Most teams would lay down. But these guys wouldn’t be denied."
Not a soul on the Brewers bench panicked, knowing they had come back against the Dodgers all series, so why not again?
"There was never a doubt we were going to come back and win the game," said Bauers, who answered with a two-run double in the fourth inning. "Not a single one. We’ve been doing it all year."
Said DH Christian Yelich: "This place was going crazy, and we’re like, 'Hey, just stay together. Let’s chip away. This is going to be a great story when we win it.'"
While the Dodgers never scored another run the rest of the game, the Brewers got two runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth, a solo homer by Garrett Mitchell in the sixth inning – his second off a left-handed pitcher in two nights after hitting only two off lefties all season – and another solo by No. 9 hitter David Hamilton in the ninth.
Now, with the Brewers on the verge of completing the stunning sweep, the Dodger Stadium security informed Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, GM Matt Arnold and the rest of the front office staff to start making their way down to the field before the start of the ninth inning. Sorry, they weren’t about to jinx anything. They stayed put, watching 22-year-old Jackson Chourio catch the final out.
It was over, and the only sound at Dodger Stadium was the shrieks and celebration of thousands of Brewers’ fans, including one of their most famous alumni, outfielder Ryan Braun, a Brewers Hall of Famer.
"It was incredible to witness," Braun said. "I mean, we went against one of the greatest teams in history, right? Like, that is an incredibly talented team with arguably the best starting rotation ever assembled. They have countless Hall of Famers. Guys that are among the best players that have ever played the game. We have a lot of guys that nobody had probably ever heard of until they started watching our nationally-televised games this series.
"And to sweep that team, I don’t think anybody believed that it was a possibility. I’m thrilled for them, man. I couldn’t be more excited. I couldn’t be honored to have been a Brewer. Watching this team play, just brought me and all the former Brewers so much pride…
"This means so much."
Braun, who spent his entire 14-year career with the Brewers and went to the postseason five times, got to the NLCS twice (2011 and 2018). Milwaukee pushed the Dodgers to Game 7 in the 2018 NLCS, but it was L.A. that went to the World Series, while the Brewers stayed home. Again.
Now, here Braun was, watching history unfold before his eyes.
"I mean, 44 years of hope,," Braun said. "Forty-four years of heartbreak. Forty-four years of believing that we would have our moment. And that moment has arrived."
Former MLB commissioner Bud Selig, whose family owned the Brewers for 35 years before selling the franchise to Attanasio, and will throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Game 1 of the World Series, was ecstatic watching from his home in Milwaukee. Hall of Famer Robin Yount, who will also throw out the first pitch, was elated watching from his home in Phoenix, and will also throw out a Game 1 ceremonial first pitch. There were tens of thousands of Brewers fans celebrating on the streets and at watch parties.
But perhaps the night meant the most to Yelich, the Brewers’ team captain, who joined Milwaukee in 2018 and signed a franchise-record extension in 2020. Now here he was, watching all of his dreams and aspirations spectacularly arrive on one glorious night in his hometown.
He was the one, according to Murphy, who told this young team, filled with 15 players with three or fewer years of service, early this season: "You better start believin’, because you know we’re going to the World Series."
"I mean, Yeli changed the culture here," Bauers said. "This is the better part of 10 years of work for him to really change this organization. I’m sure this is surreal for him."
Yelich, who was being ushered from different TV sets with FOX and ESPN after the game, finally was alone with his family, soaking it all in and celebrating the greatest night of his career.
"We’ve had our season end here on this field a couple of times," Yelich said. "And we just knew coming into spring training that if we wanted to accomplish our ultimate goal, that we were going to have to play this series against this team. It didn’t catch us by surprise that we were here. We just didn’t wake up and find ourselves here. We were ready for it.
"Obviously, the regular season and the postseason are two different things, but we proved to ourselves all year that when we played our version of baseball, and played the way that we were capable of, we were a really hard team to beat and capable of making a deep postseason."
Now, the Brewers are bracing themselves for a glorious welcoming reception when they return to Milwaukee on Friday, with the city already in a frenzy, and the World Series starting a week later.
"I don’t know if you told me as a kid that this would be a thing that happened," Yelich said. "I don’t know if I’d believe you. It’s pretty crazy. It’s just an awesome moment. I haven’t even taken it all of the way in. It’ll be something that probably hits me later.
"But it’s cool to see the crowd, giving people memorable life moments. We understand who we’re playing for, what it means to the city, and know they’re going to be stoked. The atmosphere has just been amazing. We still got a ways to get to the ultimate goal, but man, it’s going to be awesome."
This is a story that will be told for generations in Wisconsin, with Brewers' fans celebrating this team’s accomplishments for years, just like Cubs fans with their 2016 team, Royals fans with their 2015 team, White Sox fans with their 2005 team and Dodgers' fans with this dynasty.
It’s a beautiful rags-to-riches story, but how in the world can you possibly explain it?
"You can’t," Murphy said. "You just can’t. People that are interested will look into it, and see it for themselves.
"Hopefully, they write about it, and get it right."
Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers had the stars. Brewers had the gamers. Now the gamers are World Series-bound
