{"id":493335,"date":"2026-10-12T06:08:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493335\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T06:08:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:08:45","slug":"dodgers-could-be-in-trouble-if-brewers-steal-their-october-swagger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493335\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers could be in trouble if Brewers steal their October swagger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It wasn\u2019t a baseball game, it was a sucker punch.<\/p>\n

Ouch! Ooof! What?<\/p>\n

Who are these Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>?<\/p>\n

What happened to that docile small-town bunch that was once embarrassingly soft? What happened to the team with great stats but none of the swagger, a team that the Dodgers<\/a> swept last October in a playoff series that wasn\u2019t that close?<\/p>\n

The Dodgers entered the National League Championship Series at Milwaukee\u2019s American Family Field on Sunday knowing the Brewers had the best record in baseball, the best batting average in baseball, the best bullpen in baseball, and still…<\/p>\n

They had to be convinced this wasn\u2019t the same Brewer team that had famously rolled over one short year ago.<\/p>\n

Well, um… duck!<\/p>\n

In a first round that portended a lengthy and bloody fight, the Dodgers clutched to a 1-0 lead after three innings with ace Tarik Skubal<\/a> on the mound and Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski<\/a> headed for the showers.<\/p>\n

Then they lost it.<\/p>\n

They lost to a rare Brewer home run. They lost to a trademark Brewer bunt. They lost to four stifling Brewer relievers.<\/p>\n

In the end, they lost the series opener 2-1<\/a> to a relentless Brewer effort filled with all the muscle and hustle of their football-toting neighbors up in Green Bay.<\/p>\n

This time, when they were knocked down, the Brewers didn\u2019t stay down.<\/p>\n

This time, the Brewers swung back and swung harder and eventually landed a stunning blow deep into the Dodgers\u2019 psyche.<\/p>\n

This time, it\u2019s clearly going to be different.<\/p>\n

This time they tied the game in the fourth inning on a Brice Turang<\/a> home run, then took the lead an inning later on a perfect example of the manufactured attack that is pure Brewerball.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Garrett Mitchell walked, rookie Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt and light-hitting Luis Lara banged the next pitch up the middle to score Mitchell from second for the 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

From there, the league\u2019s best bullpen held the Dodgers to two singles in the last four innings, with the Dodgers stranding two runners on base in two of them. On a night they ended three innings with double plays and have still not focused their postseason hitting efforts, the final inning epitomized the frustration.<\/p>\n

With two outs against closer Trevor Megill, Kyle Tucker<\/a> drew a seven-pitch walk and kid pinch-hitter Josue De Paula<\/a> drew a walk, and the sort of heroics the Dodgers have displayed for the previous two postseasons were all set up for Mookie Betts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he promptly lofted the second pitch to center fielder Mitchell, who made the catch and screamed and flexed with the sort of hearty celebration that usually comes from the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

A different day indeed.<\/p>\n

Last season in the NLCS, the Dodgers won the opener by this exact same score and the series was never really close. Don\u2019t expect the Brewers to follow the same path, but also don\u2019t expect this to be easy.<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee's <\/p>\n

Milwaukee\u2019s Brice Turang celebrates with third base coach Matt Erickson after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The Dodgers should get the equalizer in this best-of-seven series Monday afternoon with October superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> facing relatively untested Logan Henderson.<\/p>\n

But who knows? If the Brewers are going to act like this for a week, the Dodgers could be in big trouble.<\/p>\n

The two-time defending champs aren\u2019t panicking. But they\u2019re not happy either. And if you listen closely, perhaps you can pick up a scent of worry.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you can\u2019t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Dodgers, particularly one man in the middle of their order and behind the plate, failed to do the same.<\/p>\n

Will Smith<\/a> grounded into a double play and went hitless in three at-bats and is now one for 19 in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s not swinging the bat well,\u201d said Roberts, who remains hopeful. \u201cHe just has that knack to get a hit, a big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

More of a lost cause is Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, who banged out a single in three at-bats and is three for 16 in the postseason.<\/p>\n

The Brewers seem better able to handle slumps from their stars because they\u2019re all about the business of creating runs from what unselfish soul finds himself in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

When asked about the key to this culture, Turang said, \u201cI think the buy-in factor with everyone buying into what we\u2019re trying to accomplish and kind of our style of play. Then not only that, like guys are getting more experience, they\u2019re learning the game \u2014 even for me, still learning, getting experience. That\u2019s a big factor in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee <\/p>\n

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski celebrates after striking out Kyle Tucker in the fourth inning Sunday in Game 1 of the NLCS.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Spoken like a guy who believes his team is on the verge of taking the next step. Turang said the key is what happens when they are faced with adversity \u2014 like Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen not giving up when we are behind in the game and knowing that we can do it, we can make up runs,\u201d he said. \u201cThis group is really, really good with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Dodgers, they know they\u2019re really, really good at just about everything. But they know that time could be quickly running out on their chance to once again show it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to reset,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got our guy going tomorrow, who we trust undoubtedly, and we\u2019ve got to win a baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

This October, against this newly rumpled and roughneck version of the Milwaukee Brewers, that\u2019s apparently going to be easier said than done.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t a baseball game, it was a sucker punch. Ouch! Ooof! What? Who are these Milwaukee Brewers?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[82966,2136,426,111075,191955,4468,23932,48,52,51,5814,47,50,49,191954,4122,425,191956,427,315,159797],"class_list":["post-493335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball-game","tag-brewer","tag-dodgers","tag-double-play","tag-good-bullpen","tag-inning","tag-innings","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lead","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-october-swagger","tag-postseason","tag-series","tag-seven-pitch-walk","tag-team","tag-time","tag-trouble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}