Brew Crew rallies in 9th to stun Dodgers, stay atop NL 

LOS ANGELES – The Brewers, banged up and searching for answers to their clutch hitting woes, found the keys to the batter’s box just in time on Thursday.

With the sort of rally they have used often to build the National League’s best record without much in the way of power, they strung together five singles in a six-batter span of the ninth inning against Dodgers relievers Edwin Díaz and Alex Vesia, flipping a two-run deficit into a lead on Jake Bauers’ go-ahead base hit on the way to a 5-4 win at Dodger Stadium.

Talk about good timing. A Dodgers win would have pulled them even with the Brewers atop the National League’s overall standings, with the Braves just half a game back. That matters just as much as the battle between the Brewers and Cubs for the NL Central crown, since the top two records in each league come with a bye through the aptly named, best-of-three Wild Card Series round.

But by rallying to secure a win when closer Trevor Megill closed out the bottom of the ninth for his 22nd save, the Brewers remained atop the NL at 75-47.

They didn’t exactly bash their way to victory. Through eight innings, the Brewers’ only runs scored with two outs in the fourth, when Nos. 8-9 hitters Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton took back-to-back walks with the bases loaded against Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki. He threw only 54 of 101 pitches for strikes and walked five batters in six wobbly innings, but yielded only four hits.

That kept the Dodgers in position to take a 4-2 lead on Max Muncy’s three-run home run off Brewers reliever Antonio Senzatela in the sixth, a booming shot that made Muncy the all-time Dodger Stadium leader with 131 home runs.

It was still 4-2 with one out in the ninth when the Brewers mounted their comeback with four straight singles from Ortiz, Hamilton, Jackson Chourio and Garrett Mitchell for a 4-4 tie. After Díaz struck out Gary Sánchez the Dodgers called for left-hander Vesia, and Bauers delivered yet another single for the lead.