Brice Turang homered and Milwaukee’s bullpen kept the Los Angeles Dodgers in check on Sunday as the Brewers triumphed 2-1 in game one of baseball’s National League Championship Series.
One year after they were unceremoniously swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS, the Brewers thrilled fans in Milwaukee, landing the first blow in the best-of-seven series that sends the victor to the World Series.
The Dodgers are chasing a rare World Series three-peat. The Brewers, who led the MLB with 103 regular-season wins, showed they do not plan on going quietly this year as they seek to return to the championship showcase for just the second time, 44 years after their 1982 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Trevor Megill of the Milwaukee Brewers pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
The game was billed as a duel between the Dodgers’ two-time Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal and the Brewers’ flamethrowing ace Jacob Misiorowski, but neither pitcher made it to the sixth inning.
The Dodgers wore down a sometimes shaky Misiorowski but were rewarded with just one run against him in the second inning.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani walked on four pitches to open the frame, advanced to second on a Teoscar Hernandez single and scored on a one-out single from Andy Pages.
Kyle Tucker worked a walk in a 10-pitch at-bat to load the bases. However, Enrique Hernandez hit into a double play, and Misiorowski escaped the inning without any more damage.
“I didn’t think I had my best stuff,” Misiorowski said. “Obviously good enough to make it work. Props to my defense behind me and all the support they gave me.”
Turang tied it with a solo homer off Skubal to open the bottom of the fourth inning, and the Brewers seized a 2-1 lead in the fifth on Luis Lara’s run-scoring single off Skubal.
Turang, who had fouled a ball off his knee in his prior at-bat, said he was trying to avoid a repeat when he delivered his second career postseason homer.
“I was like, I’m going to stay inside of this one,” he said. “Not try to do too much, just drive back up the middle and get inside of it. I just got it... sometimes less is more.”
One inning later, Lara put the Brewers ahead. Garrett Mitchell had walked to open the bottom of the fifth and reached second on a sacrifice bunt from Cooper Pratt before Lara cracked a ball up the middle that allowed Mitchell to score.
The Brewers bullpen made the lead stand up with four relievers combining for four and two-thirds scoreless innings.
“That bullpen really showed up today and did amazing,” Misiorowski said. “And then just the guys laying down a sac bunt to get a guy over and a clutch base hit by Lara — just, you know, our way.”
The Dodgers threatened with two outs in the ninth as Brewers closer Trevor Megill issued walks to Tucker and Josue De Paula, but Mookie Betts lofted a high fly caught for the last out.
The Brewers would try to extend their lead when they host game two on Monday.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is sending last year’s World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound, said that despite last year’s sweep of the Brewers, the Dodgers are ready to grind.
“It’s going to be a long series,” he said. “We knew it coming in”
“We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to,” Roberts said. “We’ve just got to reset. We’ve got our guy [Yamamoto] going tomorrow, who we trust undoubtedly, and we’ve got to win a baseball game.”