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Brewers win Game 1, 2-1
The Brewers have exorcised some demons and won Game 1 of the NLCS.
The Milwaukee Brewers took Game 1 of the NLCS against the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers with a 2-1 win. Coming off a four-game by the Dodgers in last year's NLCS, it had to feel like a collective weight was lifted from the virtual chest of the entire Brewers organization -- and fan base.
This marked Milwaukee's first playoff win against the Dodgers since the 2018 NLCS, which was also the last time the team won an NLCS game. They had lost seven straight playoff games to the Dodgers since then.
Winning Jacob Misiorowski's start, too, is likely paramount to their chances of winning the series.
Second baseman Brice Turang starred on the position-player side. His star has been rising in recent years and he showed his stuff for the national audience Sunday night. He played his usual sparkling defense at second base, flashing great range in the first inning and being part of three double plays. At the plate, he hit a home run to tie the game, 1-1, in the fourth inning after three dominant innings from Dodgers starter Tarik Skubal.
As for the rest of the game, let's run down a few winners and losers, knowing that the most important winners in the game were the Brewers for the actual win.
Winner: Brewers bullpen
The relief corps shut down the mighty Dodgers offense after Jacob Misiorowski went just 4 ⅓
We'll get to the issues from their starter, but the Brewers needed to dip into their bullpen in the fifth inning in a close game while facing Skubal. Against the powerful Dodgers' offense, that is far from ideal.
The bullpen was up to the task. After finishing third in ERA in the majors in the regular season, the Brewers went out and strutted their stuff in Game 1. DL Hall only needed four pitches to induce an inning-ending double play in the fifth inning. Abner Uribe, arguably the best reliever in that bullpen, took over in the sixth inning. He did give up a pair of hits, but worked his way out of the jam, getting a strikeout to leave runners on first and third. Aaron Ashby worked the seventh and eighth, allowing just one baserunner. Closer Trevor Megill looked shaky in the ninth, allowing two two-out walks, but he worked around them to save the game.
In all, the Brewers' relief corps went 4 ⅔ innings, giving up only two hits and three walks with no runs allowed. They were operating with a one-run lead against one of the highest-octane offenses in baseball. It was just incredible work.
"I guess the only solace is you got them in the game, you got to take a look," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the Brewers relievers after the game. "We just know that if there's any chance for them to win the game, we're going to see those guys. Hopefully, in a long series, it could prove to be beneficial the more times we see them."
Loser: Jacob Misiorowski, kind of
Misiorowski struggled early but kept his team in the game
The Miz definitely wasn't bad. It was, however, his second straight playoff start during which he was incredibly inefficient in the early innings due to some spotty control. He hasn't finished the fifth inning in either outing. In Game 1 on Sunday, he finished with 4 ⅓ innings of work, having allowed five hits and three walks. He only gave up one run, thanks in part to two timely double plays. Overall, the Brewers are going to need deeper work from him in order to win the World Series and that's the ultimate goal. If he could do something like go seven innings, it saves the bullpen for the rest of the series. Being a true ace means working deep into playoff games. He needs to start taking that step.
It needs to be noted, of course, that Misiorowski was good enough to put his team in position to win, so it wasn't remotely a disaster.
"I thought he was great," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of his starter after the game. "Pitching a series like this, his innings are up to almost 190 this year. That's way over, way over what he's ever done. The kid's bound to be a little bit tired, you know what I mean? You can't expect him to understand what this is all about going this far and having to pitch this much this year with the pressure he's had on him.
"Again, he gave us 13 outs. I thought he was really good. His stuff wasn't great, no, it wasn't, but it's still pretty darn good."
Winner: Shohei Ohtani, kind of
After an ugly NLDS, Ohtani showed a little sign of life in Game 1
The four-time MVP was banged up with multiple injuries in the second half of the season and landed on the IL in September. His struggles have been well-chronicled. In his last 18 regular-season games, Ohtani hit .157 with a .214 slugging percentage. In the NLDS, he was 2 for 13 with four strikeouts, prompting Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to drop him in the batting order.
Ohtani hit cleanup in Game 1 of the NLCS and showed some progress, even if it's modest. He reached twice, once on a walk and once on a single. He scored the Dodgers' only run.
If there's something the Dodgers could latch onto here after the loss, it would be this improvement.
Loser: Dodgers RISP woes
The Dodgers created traffic but were almost impressively futile in actually scoring runs
The Dodgers in the NLDS were 1 for 16 with runners in scoring position. The only hit was the series-clinching winner from Andy Pages in Game 4, but overall, they were overly reliant on hitting home runs against the Braves. They had more baserunners than the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday, but they left a bunch on. They were 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on.
As a reminder, looking at RISP stats isn't predictive -- meaning this doesn't mean the Dodgers will continue to be bad in these situations -- but it does tell us how we got to this point. It's now a 1-0 series lead for the Brewers in large part because the Dodgers didn't come through when it mattered. And, of course, the balance to that is you have to give credit to the Brewers' pitching and defense as well.
