Kickin’ it old school with dominant starters, LA heads home up 2-0

MILWAUKEE -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto shifted his weight in the visiting dugout, stretching each leg in turn, glove already fitted onto his left hand. He fixed his gaze on the field then climbed back onto it, hopped over the foul line and reclaimed his place on the mound.

This was the ninth inning of National League Championship Series Game 2, the type of party that starting pitchers tend to leave early. For years now, Major League teams have sought creative ways to record 27 outs in October. Managers turn to openers. They limit traditional starters to three innings or fewer. They endeavor not to overexpose their arms.

The 2025 Dodgers, though? They’re kicking it old school.

This is partly out of necessity, partly by design. No matter the reason, at a time of year when most modern teams zig, the Dodgers -- a modern operation if ever there was one -- are very much zagging. On Tuesday, Yamamoto twirled a complete game to lead the Dodgers to a 5-1 victory over the Brewers at American Family Field. That performance came one night after Blake Snell faced the minimum through eight innings of another win, making them the first pair of teammates to deliver consecutive postseason starts of at least eight innings since San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto in 2016.

“When they’re that good, it is surprising,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “But they’re that good.”

Largely on the strength of such starting pitching, the Dodgers took a 2-0 series lead by winning a pair in Milwaukee, with the NLCS set to shift to Los Angeles on Thursday. In postseason history, teams establishing a 2-0 lead in any best-of-seven series have gone on to win it 78 of 93 times (83.9%). In series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams winning both Games 1 and 2 on the road have prevailed in the series 24 of 27 times (88.9%).

The last club to rally from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series was the D-backs against the Phillies in the 2023 NLCS, but the last team to do so after losing the first two games at home was the Yankees against the Braves in the 1996 World Series. In other words, what the Brewers are now trying to accomplish is really, really hard -- harder by far than their task seemed at the start of the week.

“We just have to play better,” Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich said. “It’s not an ideal start to the series, by any means.”

For Los Angeles, the difference has been all about starting pitching. Dodgers starters have recorded more than two-thirds of the team’s outs this postseason, making them the only club still standing that’s coaxed even half its outs that way. That’s partly due to how many teams use openers this time of year.

But consider this: Over their first eight October contests, the Dodgers have received seven starts of six-plus innings, making them the first team to accomplish that since the 2013 Tigers. They’re tied for the sixth-lowest rotation ERA in history through eight postseason games. They’ve allowed the second-fewest hits ever through two games of a playoff series.

“If you look at the construction of our roster currently, the strength is starting pitching,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And when you can have your most talented pitchers get the most outs, then you're in a good spot.”

A night after Snell set an almost impossible bar, Yamamoto not only nearly matched him in dominance, but surpassed him in length. After allowing the third leadoff homer in Brewers postseason history to Jackson Chourio, the right-hander allowed just two more hits, striking out seven. His five-pitch mix resulted in 15 ground-ball outs, stifling Milwaukee’s offense.

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“I established my rhythm,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter, “and then I dictated the tempo based off the game.”

Los Angeles’ own lineup did not exactly thrash Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, but it didn’t need to. A Teoscar Hernández homer and an Andy Pages RBI double in the second inning gave the Dodgers a lead they would never relinquish. Max Muncy later added a solo shot to become the Dodgers’ all-time postseason home run leader, Shohei Ohtani chipped in with an RBI single, and the Dodgers kept pressuring Milwaukee’s bullpen throughout the later innings.

That turned out to be plenty. The Dodgers, a team that led the NL in runs during the regular season but ranked eighth in ERA, have essentially reversed course in the NLCS. Because their starters are as healthy as at any point this year, and because their bullpen is a clear weakness, the Dodgers have squeezed every possible drop from their rotation.

“It’s really hard to say the pitching can step up any more than what they’ve been doing,” Muncy said.

There are two sides to every story, of course, and another way to read this one is that the Brewers simply aren’t hitting. Typifying their struggles is Yelich, who hasn’t recorded an RBI in 15 consecutive postseason games dating to 2020. But Yelich is hardly the only Milwaukee hitter staying off the basepaths. Through two NLCS games, the Brewers have just two extra-base hits. In Murphy’s estimation, the league’s most disciplined offense during the regular season has chased outside the strike zone far too often.

“These pitchers brought out the worst in us,” Murphy said.

Nor will things grow easier for the Brewers in Los Angeles -- not with Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani set to start Games 3 and 4 for the Dodgers. If they wish to win their first pennant since 1982, the Brewers are going to have to find offensive solutions against them, and fast.

“The one thing is, you guys might have us counted out,” Murphy said. “And I understand that. Ninety percent of the teams that have been in this situation don’t win the series. But this team has been counted out a lot this year. And I think there’s some fight left in them.”