Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Sunday night in the opening game of the NL Championship Series, a rematch a year in the making.
Rookie Luis Lara decided it. He lined a first-pitch Tarik Skubal changeup up the middle to score Garrett Mitchell, who had drawn a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a Cooper Pratt sacrifice bunt. The Brewers took a fifth-inning lead on a manufactured run and held it. That approach summed up their path to the NLCS, and it was an early sign that this is not the team that was swept by the Dodgers last year.
Game 1 star: Milwaukee’s bullpen
The Brewers’ relievers were outstanding. DL Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined for 4⅔ scoreless innings and escaped several difficult situations with composure. Ashby deserves special credit. He covered two innings and induced a pair of eighth-inning infield popups, from Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani. Uribe also struck out a batter to strand two runners and keep Milwaukee ahead.
The stat that defined the game: three double plays
Jacob Misiorowski struggled early, but the Brewers’ defence bailed him out. Milwaukee turned 6-4-3 double plays to end both the first and second innings. After Misiorowski left in the fifth, Hall got an inning-ending double play to snuff out another potential rally.
What it means for the series
This is only the second time since the Dodgers’ championship run began in 2024 that they have lost the opening game of a playoff series. The first was in last year’s World Series, when they bounced back to beat the Blue Jays in Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Yamamoto starts Game 2 on Monday at 5 p.m. ET, and the Dodgers know a 2-0 series deficit against a team as strong as Milwaukee could cause real trouble.
Other key moments
Skubal recorded six strikeouts through the first three innings. Misiorowski reached 102 mph on the radar gun. Brice Turang later tied the game, setting up Lara’s decisive run.
