LOS ANGELES – Jake Bauers’ two epic plate appearances defined the 2026 National League Championship Series.
For those game-changing moments and a team-high six RBIs, Bauers was named the NLCS MVP after his Brewers swept the Dodgers in a 6-4 comeback victory on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
The Brewers, who waited 44 years for a return trip to the World Series, had never had a player win the LCS MVP Award before. When they won the AL pennant in 1982, the Angels’ Fred Lynn won MVP honors in a losing effort.
Bauers, who put together a career year with 26 home runs and 86 RBIs, carried it over into the second round of Milwaukee’s postseason. He collected at least one hit in all four games of the NLCS, including a two-run ground-rule double in the fourth inning of Thursday’s clincher that cut Milwaukee’s deficit in half. Bauers also brought in the game-tying run with a bases-loaded walk in the fifth.
His six RBIs tied for the most in a postseason series in franchise history, joining the following performances:
• Jackson Chourio (2026 NLDS)
• Chourio (2025 NLDS)
• Ryan Braun (2011 NLCS)
• Cecil Cooper (1982 World Series)
• Robin Yount (1982 World Series)
Earlier in the NLCS, Bauers’ heroics involved long battles in the middle of decisive rallies.
In the third inning of Game 2, Bauers worked a 12-pitch walk against right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a plate appearance that lasted seven minutes and four seconds. Following his free pass, captain Christian Yelich stroked the go-ahead two-run single to chase Yamamoto in the third inning of a 7-4 win in Milwaukee.
The 31-year-old Bauers was back at it again in NLCS Game 3, sending the 11th pitch from two-time Cy Young-winning left-hander Blake Snell over the right-field wall for the go-ahead two-run homer. Garrett Mitchell went back to back with Bauers in Milwaukee’s 6-2 victory on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
It marked the sixth home run on the 11th pitch of an at-bat or later in the postseason since pitch-count tracking began in 1988. It also made Bauers the second player with 11-plus-pitch plate appearances in consecutive games within a postseason (Aramis Ramirez in 2003 NLCS).