{"id":493355,"date":"2026-10-12T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493355\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:56:13","slug":"brewers-get-just-enough-off-tarik-skubal-beat-dodgers-in-nlcs-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/493355\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers get just enough off Tarik Skubal, beat Dodgers in NLCS Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0First and foremost, the Dodgers<\/a> wanted Tarik Skubal<\/a> on their team. When they pursued him at the trade deadline, they saw him as the rare player who could improve their odds of winning a third straight World Series.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t hurt that by acquiring him they prevented other postseason contenders, including the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>, from landing the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Dodgers guaranteed that they wouldn\u2019t have to face him in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s in the back of your head, the teams that are interested,\u201d president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman<\/a> said Sunday before the Dodgers\u2019 2-1 loss to the Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. \u201cCertainly not a driver, but not nothing either. As far as how happy I am, I am very happy it\u2019s Skubal versus Miz and not Miz and Skubal [for the Brewers] in the next two.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment rang even truer when the Dodgers dropped Game 1 at American Family Field, despite forcing \u201cMiz\u201d \u2014 Jacob Misiorowski, the NL Cy Young favorite \u2014 out of the game in just 4\u2153 innings, and despite having Skubal, who struck out seven in five innings but gave up two runs in a fine effort, on their side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our job, trying to get the starter, especially when you\u2019re facing a guy like him, out of the game early,\u201d said left fielder Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez, who logged two hits against Misiorowski. \u201cI think we did a pretty good job, we just didn\u2019t get the job done when we needed with guys in scoring position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers hit into three inning-ending double plays in the first five innings and overall left nine men on base, going one for six with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

In a role reversal, the Dodgers, who scored almost exclusively via the home run in the first round, pulled ahead with a pesky approach at the plate.<\/p>\n

Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani opened the second inning with a four-pitch walk. Then Hern\u00e1ndez and Andy Pages hit opposite-field singles to move Ohtani around the bases and give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Taking a similar \u201cgrind him out\u201d approach to the one they deployed against Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale in Game 3 of the Division Series<\/a>, the Dodgers forced Misiorowski to throw 35 pitches in the inning \u2014 10 alone to Kyle Tucker, who worked a walk.<\/p>\n

By the third inning, Misiorowski\u2019s fastball velocity, which touched 104 mph, had dropped to double digits. And though the Dodgers didn\u2019t score again against him, they continued to rack up his pitch count. By the time he exited with one out in the fifth, it was at 94.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Brewers, known for their peskiness, instead tied the score with one swing against Skubal. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brice Turang got the barrel of his bat to an inside sinker and lifted it over the fence in left-center, into the Brewers\u2019 bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 2-0 sinker in, I mean, I\u2019m going to live with that, left-on-left,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cHe put a good swing on it. The first at-bat he broke his bat [on a similar pitch], ground ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the Brewers have players who can hit home runs, they pulled ahead the next inning with a sequence more closely aligned with their identity.<\/p>\n

Skubal walked Garrett Mitchell on five pitches. Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt moved him into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. And then Luis Lara sent a ground-ball single through the middle of the infield to drive in the go-ahead run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leadoff walk just can\u2019t happen,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cIt gives them an opportunity to create something, and ultimately that\u2019s all they needed today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skubal battled traffic to get out of the inning without giving up another run. But in such a tight game, that marked the end of his start.<\/p>\n

The American Family Field atmosphere added an extra charge to the close contest. The home crowd was perhaps its loudest (until an ear-splitting cheer at the final out) when it took issue with a balk call against Misiorowski. It looked as if he had picked off Hern\u00e1ndez to end the fourth inning, but Hern\u00e1ndez instead was awarded second base.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Brewers\u2019 Jake Bauers is tagged out by Dodgers second baseman Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez after he was picked off by pitcher Alex Vesia.<\/p>\n

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

That play still was seared into their collective memory when Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia picked off Jake Bauers at first base. Brewers fans shouted \u201cbalk!\u201d over and over.<\/p>\n

The bullpens battled to a scoreless draw, the Dodgers\u2019 last stand falling flat after Tucker and pinch-hitting rookie Josue De Paula<\/a> drew a pair of two-out walks against Brewers closer Trevor Megill. Mookie Betts drove a fly ball to the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd, until Mitchell closed his glove around it. So the edge the Brewers gained against Skubal held.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said after the game. \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. We\u2019ve just got to reset. We\u2019ve got our guy going [Monday], who we trust undoubtedly, and we\u2019ve got to win a baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

That guy is right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who last year threw a complete game<\/a> at American Family Field in Game 2 of the NLCS.<\/p>\n

The road doesn\u2019t get much easier for the Dodgers\u2019 offense Monday, when it\u2019ll face right-hander Logan Henderson, who held them to one run in seven innings when the Brewers came to Los Angeles in August. But imagine if instead the Brewers had outbid the Dodgers and they had to go through Skubal first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would look really different,\u201d Roberts<\/a> said Saturday. \u201cWhat those guys do \u2014 they had the best record in baseball. Certainly when you\u2019re talking about a seven-game series, to see Tarik on the other side \u2026 the series would look a lot different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0First and foremost, the Dodgers wanted Tarik Skubal on their team. When they pursued him at the trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[103193,2136,96256,426,191963,4468,4390,48,52,51,47,50,49,54,4121,21949,10195,2668,191962,18471,6130],"class_list":["post-493355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag--innings","tag-brewer","tag-brice-turang","tag-dodgers","tag-four-pitch-walk","tag-inning","tag-jacob-misiorowski","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-nlcs-game","tag-pitch","tag-plate","tag-run","tag-skubal-sweepstake","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-teoscar-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493355","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=493355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}