Brewers 7, Dodgers 4: Contreras and a Perfect Bullpen Put Milwaukee Up 2-0 in the NLCS
William Contreras tied it with a 436-foot homer and untied it an inning later, and four Milwaukee relievers retired the final 15 Dodgers in order to send the champions home down 0-2.
The two-time defending champions are in a hole they haven't seen in three years. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 in Game 2 of the NLCS at American Family Field on Monday night, taking a 2-0 series lead as the series shifts to Los Angeles — the Dodgers' first 0-2 postseason deficit since the 2023 NLDS.
Contreras twice, then the door slams
William Contreras did the heavy lifting, going 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs. With Milwaukee trailing 4-3 in the fifth, he tied it with a 436-foot home run to center, the game's only homer. The sixth brought the turning point: reliever Brock Stewart hit David Hamilton with a pitch, a pickoff throw glanced off Freddie Freeman's glove to move Hamilton up, and Contreras cashed him in with the go-ahead single. Brice Turang and Jake Bauers added RBI singles in the eighth.
From there it was a procession. Milwaukee's bullpen — Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby — retired all 15 Dodgers it faced. According to MLB.com, that is the most perfect innings by a bullpen in a single postseason game.
The champions can't buy a big hit
The strangest line of the night: Los Angeles scored four runs without a hit driving any of them in — two sacrifice flies, from Teoscar Hernández and Freeman, and two errant throws by Brewers starter Logan Henderson. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was pulled after 2 2/3 innings and 75 pitches, the shortest postseason start of his career, yet the Dodgers went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. The slump runs deeper: Shohei Ohtani is 3-for-20 this postseason and Will Smith 1-for-23.
Milwaukee, chasing its first pennant since 1982, now needs two wins in five games. Game 3 is Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, with Robert Gasser and Blake Snell the likely starters, per CBS Sports. Teams up 2-0 in a best-of-seven have gone on to win 83 percent of the time — but the Dodgers' last two Octobers ended in parades, and they get three straight at home to answer.