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Brewers win Game 2, 7-4
The Brewers have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS. They've never won the National League. Or the World Series.
The Milwaukee Brewers have taken a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS over the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Back-and-forth action dominated Monday's game before the Brewers went ahead for good and a 7-4 Game 2 win.
The Dodgers struck first with a run before the Brewers even batted, but the Brewers quickly evened the score, 1-1, with a run in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers scored in the third, but the Brewers responded with a two-run bottom half. The Dodgers got two in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, but William Contreras hit a home run in the bottom half to tie it. Then the Brewers scored in the bottom of the sixth to take that 5-4 lead and handed the ball over to their three late-inning relievers to bring it home. The offense provided some insurance in the eighth, too.
Here are the winners and losers from Game 2:
Winner: William Contreras
The All-Star catcher went 3 for 4 with a walk and three RBI, but it was just as much the timing as the stat line. Every one of his hits felt like a huge deal at the time.
In the bottom of the first, the Brewers were already losing with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Memories of Yamamoto dominating them in a complete-game effort in Milwaukee in the NLCS last season lingered. There was a runner on second. And Contreras fought off a tough pitch for an RBI single. The Brewers faithful could breathe a bit easier.
The Dodgers taking back the lead in the fifth felt ominous, but Contreras didn't waste much time in tying it up.
Then, there was what would become the game-winning RBI after the Dodgers had elected to intentionally walk Brice Turang in order to face Contreras.
"You watch him compete every night and you watch him go about the business. There's nobody that wants it any more," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said about Contreras after the game.
"It's not enough for him to make the All-Star team. He wants to excel. He wants it all. He's driven to a point where sometimes you have to intervene. He was so significant tonight, incredible. Forget even the offensive production, which was incredible. Four quality at-bats. But the defense and just calling the game, working with four or five different pitchers, whatever we threw out there. He does it every night.
"This guy, he's underrated. Whatever people think about him, he's underrated. He's that good."
There wasn't just one hero for the Brewers in this one, but Contreras was firmly in the mix.
Loser: The Brewers on defense (at least for the first five innings)
A key feature of the Brewers is that they don't beat themselves. They sure tried early in this one, and it was mostly starting pitcher Logan Henderson. He walked the leadoff man and then let him get to third on a wild pitch. A sac fly would score the runner. He also committed a throwing error while trying to pick a runner off first base that allowed another run to score. Oh, and another throwing error scored yet another run. He ended up being charged with four runs, but only two were earned (we can argue that if the pitcher commits the error, the runs could be considered "earned" at another time). Most of the mishaps were Henderson's.
One that wasn't was a play that was ruled a single in the third-inning rally. It was a rocket, but it was right at shortstop Cooper Pratt, who let it get by him.
They survived this one, but they need to tighten things up. The job isn't done.
Winner: The Brewers' bullpen, again
Henderson was yanked from the game immediately after he committed that throwing error in the fifth after recording just 12 outs. That left 15 for the Brewers' bullpen. Dustin May got three outs in three batters (a sac fly scored the last run charged to Henderson). JoJo Romero went three up, three down. Abner Uribe got the only four hitters he saw out. Aaron Ashby took over with one out in the eighth and finished off a clean ninth inning to lock down the win.
As noted, the Brewers' bullpen needed to get 15 outs. They needed only 15 batters in order to do so. They were perfect, the first team in MLB history with five perfect innings from the bullpen in a postseason game.
Loser: Yoshinobu Yamamoto's playoff stature
Dodgers starter Yamamoto was in the process of building an all-time great playoff resume. We say "was" because the Brewers took a bite out of it. Not only did he not get through the third inning, but he gave up three runs on four hits while walking two and striking out only one. He was noticeably gassed in that third inning, particularly during a 12-pitch plate appearance from Brewers' cleanup man Jake Bauers, drawing the walk before Christian Yelich hit a go-ahead, two-RBI single and chased Yamamoto from the game.
The Brewers just absolutely exhausted him.
"Obviously wasn't sharp. Just wasn't sharp today," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his ace after the game. " ... Tonight, he just didn't have it tonight, which is very rare."
Loser: The Dodgers offense
The Dodgers got three hits, including one double. You could argue, however, that the Brewers handed them every run. Remember, the Dodgers only scored one run in Game 1, and that was on a groundball with eyes that followed two walks. Their woes with runners in scoring position were a talking point in the playoffs so far, but home runs had carried them. They've hit zero homers so far in this series, with one double as their only extra-base hit. They are flailing.
Biggest winner: The Brewers' home games
The Brewers are now 4-0 at home in the playoffs after earning the No. 1 seed with a dominant regular season. That's what you play for and why the top seed can be so important.
Further, the Brewers were swept by the Dodgers last season, barely making a whimper in the NLCS. They hit one home run in that series. They already have two in this series, and both were huge blows.
The 2025 NLCS was one when we say stuff like, "this is like men against boys." Many people thought it would be more of the same this time around, expecting the big bad Dodgers to flip some sort of switch and lock in against the small-market Brewers.
So far -- and, yes, things could change -- these Brewers look different. They have answered the call over and over in this series after falling behind.
And they now have a 2-0 lead in the NLCS against the reigning champions.
