MILWAUKEE — Now do you believe in the Milwaukee Brewers?
Do you believe that there was no fluke that the Brewers won 103 games this season, the most in the major leagues?
Now, do you believe the Brewers are on their way to reaching the World Series for the first time since 1982, and trying to win their first in franchise history?
Well, the entire state of Wisconsin sure does, watching their beloved Brewers rolling out the barrel over the powerful Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4 Monday afternoon, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series in front of a frenzied sellout crowd at American Family Field.
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This is the first time in the Brewers 58-year history that they have ever taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series.
The last time the Dodgers won a postseason series when trailing 2 games to 0 was in the Covid postseason of 2020 when they came back to beat Atlanta, and ultimately won their first World Series since 1988.
But in a full season, the Dodgers haven’t managed to pull off the feat since the 1981 World Series against the New York Yankees.
It’s premature to believe the Dodgers’ glorious postseason run is coming to an abrupt end, but they are in trouble, and they know it. All you need to know about the Brewers’ strength and resiliency was showcased in a 7-minute, 15-second stretch in the third inning.
This is how long Jake Bauers stood at the plate, battling Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 12 grueling pitches, finally drawing a walk after fouling off six consecutive pitches.
It was the greatest at-bat of the Brewers’ season.
And it just may be the at-bat that propels the Brewers to their first World Series championship in their 58-year history.
It was insane, really.
The Brewers had runners on first and second with two outs, with Yamamoto showing fatigue, going to a full-count to his last two batters. Up stepped Bauers.
Bauers, who worked a full-count, then the count to full again, fouled off a 07-mph fastball.
Then a 77-mph curveball.
Then, two more fastballs, a cutter, and a splitter.
And then, on the 12th pitch, he drew a walk when Yamamoto threw a curveball into the dirt.
It loaded the bases, and two pitches later, on the 36th pitch of the inning, Christian Yelich poked Yamamoto’s curveball into center field for a go-ahead, two-run single.
It knocked Yamamoto, their World Series hero and postseason legend, out of the game after just 2 ⅔ innings. It was the shortest postseason stint of his career after yielding a 1.07 ERA in his last five postseason starts. He threw 33 pitches, and managed to induce just four swings-and-misses, leaving with a 3-2 deficit.
The Dodgers were reeling, but weren’t done, with Brewers rookie starter Logan Henderson committing his second error of the game, this one on a bunt by No. 9 hitter Tommy Edman, when he air-mailed the throw over Bauers’ head into right field, permitting Kyle Tucker to score. And the Dodgers, playing Brewer ball, took the lead when Mookie Betts moved Edman over to third on a groundout with Freeman scoring him on a sacrifice fly.
The Dodgers lead lasted just two batters when William Contreras blasted Kris Bubic’s 94.8-mph fastball over the center-field, sending the sellout crowd of 42,516 into an absolute frenzy. It was Contreras’ third home run of the postseason, tied for the most by a catcher in the first six games of a postseason. It was the fifth homer of his postseason career, tying the franchise record, and tying the game.
And yes, he certainly admired it, taking 35.7 seconds to complete his home-run trot.
He didn’t have that luxury when he came to the plate in the sixth inning. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to intentionally walk left-handed hitter Bryce Turang with second base open, and face Contreras. It took just one pitch for Contreras to make the Dodgers regret the decision, slapping a slider into left field, giving the Brewers a 5-4 lead.
Certainly, Contreras has come just as advertised when the Brewers acquired him in a three-way trade with Atlanta and the Athletics at the 2022 winter meetings. Walt Weiss, Atlanta’s bench coach at the time, immediately informed Brewers manager Pat Murphy he was getting a future star.
“Walt filled me in,’’ Murphy said, “and said, “I'm going to tell you, you're getting something special.’ This is a special guy. You've got to peel away the onion a little bit and look behind a few things that come at you strong.
“But he's just grown. He wants to win very, very badly. …To see William come from where he did, it's really special.’’
Meanwhile, the Brewers’ unsung heroes is their vaunted bullpen. They not only reeled off another five scoreless innings, but retired all 15 batters they faced.
Their bullpen is now yielding an 0.31 ERA this postseason, the third-lowest in baseball history through the six games of a postseason since the divisional era in 1969.
It’s outrageous.
It’s insane.
It’s the Brewers.
And, oh, are they ever for real.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Believe in the Brewers yet? Milwaukee in dreamland, Dodgers desperate after wild Game 2