MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers insisted this year would be different.
And sure enough -- one game into this National League Championship Series rematch -- it already is.
With their ace on the mound and a raucous American Family Field at their back, the Brewers needed Game 1. And they got it. On a night that featured high-stakes drama from the very start, Milwaukee rode a brilliant effort from its bullpen to a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday.
“These are the games we live for,” said Brewers second baseman Brice Turang. “Like, we love doing this.”
Already, this series looks drastically different from the one these two NL heavyweights staged last October. A year ago, Los Angeles won Game 1 on the road, then never looked back, en route to a sweep.
These Brewers will not go down so easily. Not with this version of Jacob Misiorowski. Not with this bullpen. Not with this offense, which suddenly seems capable of beating you with both small ball and the long ball.
Turang’s homer off Tarik Skubal tied the game in the fourth. An inning later, a walk and a bunt got Garrett Mitchell into scoring position, and Luis Lara drove him in. The Milwaukee ‘pen made sure that lead held up.
“You can't go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
The L.A. offense certainly made Misiorowski work -- particularly during a 35-pitch second inning. Shohei Ohtani opened the frame with a walk and scored on Andy Pages’ RBI single. L.A. loaded the bases with one out. Misiorowski was on the ropes.
But there’s a reason Misiorowski is almost certainly going to win the National League Cy Young Award, and it’s not merely because he throws heat. Without his best swing-and-miss stuff, he found a way. He got Kiké Hernández to bounce into an inning-ending double play -- featuring a smooth pick at short from Cooper Pratt and an excellent turn at second from Turang. The Brewers had life.
“Didn't think I had my best stuff,” Misiorowski said. “Obviously good enough to make it work. Props to my defense behind me.”
Even as the Dodgers drove his pitch count up, Misiorowski worked his way around trouble. He allowed five hits and three walks across 4 1/3 innings. He only allowed one run. After a disputed balk call took what could have been the final out off the board in the fourth inning, Misiorowski instead ended the frame with a nasty cutter past Kyle Tucker. He pumped his fist and hopped off the mound.
Three pitches later, the game was tied.
In this battle of aces, Skubal was much more efficient and effective in the early stages. But he fell behind Turang, 2-0, then threw a fastball on the inner edge. Left-on-left, Turang somehow managed to launch it to the opposite field, 384 feet into the home bullpen.
“Yeah, 2-0 sinker, pretty good in,” Skubal said. “It's in the zone, but it's in. I'm gonna tip my hat on a pitch like that. … I'm gonna live with that, left-on-left. He put a good swing on it.”
Said Turang: “I didn't want to foul a ball off my knee again. So I was like: ‘I'm going to stay inside of this one, not try to do too much, just drive it back up the middle and get inside of it.' I just got it. Just trying to stay inside of it, drive it up the middle. Sometimes less is more.”
An inning later, the Brewers grabbed the lead with the brand of ball that has come to define them. They won 103 games this way during the regular season. Why change now?
Mitchell worked a walk. Cooper Pratt bunted him to second. Brewers manager Pat Murphy was entrusting one of his rookies, Pratt, to set up another. Lara, the 21-year-old outfielder, promptly rewarded that faith, swatting Skubal’s first-pitch changeup into center field. Milwaukee led, and American Family Field whipped into a frenzy.
“Both [Lara] and Pratt are up here not knowing they were going to be in the big leagues,” Murphy said. “And they both are very conscientious about getting it done the right way.”
The Brewers had already scored more runs (two) than they had in any of the four games during last year’s NLCS. Abner Uribe followed with a scoreless sixth. Aaron Ashby covered the seventh and eighth. Trevor Megill had the ninth, and he quickly recorded the first two outs.
But these Brewers have maximized the drama all October. They’re only the fourth team to begin the playoffs with five straight games decided by two runs or fewer, following a riveting NLDS against San Diego.
Megill walked Kyle Tucker, then pinch-hitter Josue De Paula, bringing Mookie Betts to the plate with the go-ahead runs aboard. Betts got a hittable fastball from Megill and sent a deep drive to center field. It nestled in Mitchell’s glove at the warning track.
“They got their hit,” Betts said. “At some point, we've got to get ours.”
Game 2 comes quickly -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Logan Henderson on Monday. But the Brewers grabbed a clear early edge by winning Game 1.
In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams that have taken a 1-0 lead have gone on to win that series 127 of 197 times (64%). In series with the current 2-3-2 format, when teams that have won Game 1 at home, have gone on to win that series on 69 of 103 occasions (67%).
“It's going to be a long series,” Roberts said. “We knew it coming in. We had our chances. But they made plays, pitches when they needed to.”