Game 1 of the National League championship series didn’t follow the script anyone expected.
A much-ballyhooed battle between the guy who entered the season as the best pitcher on the planet and the guy who ripped the mantle away during it ended with an unexpected twist. Neither made it past the fifth inning.
The Brewers got to Tarik Skubal for two runs, handing the ace lefty the loss in a 2–1 victory despite Jacob Misiorowski lasting just 4 ⅓ innings. It was a gutsy, come-from-behind win for Milwaukee to take a 1–0 lead in the series a year after being swept in this same round by Los Angeles.
The Dodgers expended a ton of prospect capital to land Skubal at the trade deadline with an eye toward this kind of game. He was supposed to be the ace of an already loaded rotation in October, earning Game 1 starter status over Yoshinobu Yamamoto. On Sunday night, he didn’t get it done. Milwaukee’s approach had as much to do with that as his own struggles. The Brewers didn’t need to overpower Skubal to chase him from the game.
Skubal cruised through the first three innings, striking out six. An Andrew Vaughn double was the only blemish over the first 10 batters he faced. Things started getting a little dicey in the fourth inning.
After falling behind Brice Turang 2–0, Skubal threw a 96 mph sinker on the inner-half of the plate. Turang put an impressive inside-out swing on the ball and launched it over the left-center-field fence for a home run that tied the game 1–1. After William Contreras struck out, Jake Bauers singled to right to put more pressure on Skubal, who responded by getting Vaughn to ground into an inning-ending double play.
— MLB (@MLB) October 12, 2026
In the fifth, the Brewers unleashed the kind of offense that has become their staple, and they took over the game. Garrett Mitchell led off with a walk as Skubal’s command began to waver. Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Mitchell to second, then rookie Luis Lara grounded a single up the middle, scoring Mitchell from second. While the Brewers were done scoring, they weren’t done tormenting Skubal.
After a Joey Ortiz groundout, Jackson Chourio reached on an infield single, and Turang worked a five-pitch walk to load the bases. William Contreras stepped in and flew out after a seven-pitch battle. Despite only allowing one run, Skubal was under a lot of stress all inning. He left the mound having thrown 81 pitches and didn’t return when the Dodgers retook the field.
That is who the Brewers are. They led MLB in walk rate (10.6%) and batting average (.258) this season, finished third in the NL in sacrifice bunts (37) and ranked eighth in contact percentage (78.1%). The team didn’t change its offensive identity because it was facing an ace like Skubal. Milwaukee embraced what got it here and chased him early as a result.
The team’s contact-first approach was particularly effective against a pitcher like Skubal, who thrives on overpowering hitters with his elite fastball-changeup combination. Milwaukee didn’t need to slug to beat him or wait on mistakes. The Brewers just continued to grind at-bats. They got on base, forced him to pitch from the stretch and made him navigate with traffic on the bases.
Skubal was brilliant in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Braves. He went six innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out seven. It continued a string of excellent performances he had put together starting in mid-August. He had pitched into the sixth inning in eight of his last nine starts entering Sunday night, and had allowed a single run in his last 13 innings.
That made Milwaukee’s Game 1 victory all the more impressive, given its own ace’s struggles. The 24-year-old needed 94 pitches to record 13 outs, but the Brewers’ bullpen picked him up, combining for 4 ⅔ shutout innings to preserve the victory.
Milwaukee didn’t need its No. 1 starter to dominate to win Game 1. The Brewers played their brand of baseball, and it was enough to beat the pitcher Los Angeles wrote its October script around.
On Sunday night, the Brewers forced a rewrite.
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