Brewers offense ignites, bullpen locks down for 2-0 NLCS lead over Dodgers
The Milwaukee Brewers played their most lopsided contest of the 2026 playoffs Oct. 12 at American Family Field.
The Cardiac Crew, for the sixth time in six games this postseason, battled in a nailbiter down to the very end for a 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series that was only that big of a margin because of a couple eighth-inning runs from Milwaukee.
The Brewers overcame early mistakes in the field, particularly from starter Logan Henderson, with their best offensive showing from a scoring standpoint since Game 2 of last year’s National League Division series.
Facing the tallest of October tasks in the form of Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Brewers chased the man with peak postseason pedigree in the third inning on their way to pouring in 12 hits and 19 base runners.
William Contreras had three hits and drove in three runs, including a go-ahead homer in the sixth that tied Jackson Chourio for the most in Brewers playoff history, while Brice Turang reached base four times and scored three runs and David Hamilton crossed the plate thrice.
Here are three quick takeaways from the victory to give the Brewers a 2-0 series lead.
Through the first five games and two innings of the postseason, the Brewers had put 64 men on base but scored only 16 of them – good for one quarter. The offense had operated mostly as intended, but without the steady stream of back-breaking hits that defined it during the season.
Then the third inning against the greatest active postseason pitcher took place.
A 36-pitch grinder of an inning saw the Brewers take the lead and saw Yamamoto depart from the game thanks to one high-quality at-bat after another.
Plate appearances by Jake Bauers and Christian Yelich will get the headlines – and rightfully so – but efforts by every hitter preceding that took a chunk out of the Dodgers October star.
David Hamilton opened by working a full count and dumping a single to center and stealing second against Yamamoto, who only allowed six stolen bases compared to four runners thrown out in the regular season. Jackson Chourio whistled a 98-mph liner to right that nearly split the gap before Kyle Tucker ran it down for out No. 1.
Turang battled back from an 0-2 count to draw four consecutive balls before William Contreras flew out, but not until he had made Yamamoto throw seven more pitches.
Bauers responded by delivering what would have been the plate appearance of the playoffs for Milwaukee had Chourio’s walk-off against Mason Miller last series not existed, battling for 12 pitches. Bauers found himself in a 2-2 count and took a splitter up to send the count full.
The Brewers first baseman fouled off the next six pitches – four-seam, curve, four-seam, four-seam, cutter, splitter – before Yamamoto, following a lengthy PitchCom delay, tried another curve but sent it into the dirt.
Two pitches later, another ill-located hook burned the Dodgers righty, this one a hanger to Yelich, who looped it into the outfield for a go-ahead, two-run single.
It was as ‘Brewers’ an inning as you can have; Milwaukee chased out of the zone only three times – all in Bauers’ plate appearance when he was in swing mode – and took 14 balls.
This was nothing like last year’s Game 2 of the NLCS when Yamamoto spun a 111-pitch complete game, stymying the Brewers after a leadoff Chourio homer.
So often we notice when teams burn their ABS challenges in ill-advised moments, but in the early innings of Game 2 it was the Dodgers’ decisions to not challenge that proved to be vital mistakes.
With two strikes on Brice Turang in the first, Yamamoto painted two pitches on the black that were called balls by home plate umpire Chris Segal. Catcher Will Smith challenged neither and Turang immediately doubled and scored.
Turang’s next plate appearance was Dodger-vu. After Turang battled back from down 0-2 to work a full count against Yamamoto, he took a 91 mph cutter on the edge. The automated strike zone had it in the zone, but Segal did not; either way, Smith didn’t go to his helmet and Turang took his base.
Two batters later came Jake Bauers’ epic 12-pitch walk to load the bases. Two more after that, Yelich dunked a single into center to plate two and put Milwaukee in front.
When you consider how messy the Brewers have been on the defensive side of the ball, it seems almost amazing that they’re in the position they’re in.
After working against his own cause with an early wild pitch that led to a run in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, a trio of Henderson self-inflicted mistakes directly led to three of the four runs he allowed – the most he’s ever given up in any start in the majors.
Henderson spiked another wild pitch in the first inning, this one allowing Mookie Betts to take third and score one pitch later on a sacrifice fly.
With runners on the corners and one out in the third, Henderson sent an errant pickoff to first that allowed Tommy Edman to score; moments later, Henderson got a sharp grounder to third that, all things equal, would have ended the inning.
But his most regrettable miscue may have come in the fifth, when, following Kyle Tucker’s leadoff double, he airmailed a throw to first on a bunt attempt by Edman. Chances are Tucker would have scored anyway, but Edman took second on the play and came around on a grounder and sacrifice fly against Dustin May, beating Jackson Chourio’s strong throw from left by a fraction of a second.
Through six games, Milwaukee has had at least seven self-caused miscues on defense lead to runs by the opponent.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers offense ignites, bullpen locks down for 2-0 NLCS lead over Dodgers
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