Milwaukee won NLCS Game 1 by a score of 2-1 on Sunday night, and the way it happened should bother Los Angeles a lot more than the one-run margin suggests.
Tarik Skubal struck out six of the first 10 batters he faced. He finished five innings with seven strikeouts on 81 pitches, allowing five hits and two runs. He also took the loss, because the Brewers beat him with a solo home run from their second baseman and a rally built on a walk and a sacrifice bunt.
Brice Turang and Luis Lara Did the Damage
Turang hit a solo shot 384 feet into the Milwaukee bullpen in the fourth, his first home run of the postseason, to tie it.
The go-ahead run in the fifth was even less glamorous. Garrett Mitchell walked. Cooper Pratt bunted him to second. Luis Lara, a 21-year-old right fielder, singled to center. That is the whole sequence that beat the best pitcher in the National League.
“These are the games we live for,” Turang said afterward.
Jacob Misiorowski Was Not Good, and It Did Not Matter
Milwaukee’s starter went 4 1/3 innings on 94 pitches with only 60 strikes, walking three and allowing five hits and a run. That is a labored outing.
He also escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second with a double play off the bat of Kiké Hernández, right after Andy Pages singled home Shohei Ohtani for what turned out to be the Dodgers’ only run of the night.
Then the bullpen took it from there: 4 2/3 shutout innings from Uribe, Ashby, Megill and Hall. DL Hall got the win. Trevor Megill got the save after a ninth inning that nearly fell apart, walking Kyle Tucker and pinch-hitter Josue De Paula before Mitchell caught Mookie Betts’ drive at the warning track.
The Dodgers Went 1-for-5 With Runners in Scoring Position
That is the number that decides series. Los Angeles got traffic on the bases against a starter who could not find the plate and converted almost none of it.
“At some point, we’ve got to get ours,” Betts said. Dave Roberts went with the longer view: “It’s going to be a long series.”
He is right that it is long. He is also facing a team that holds home-field advantage, which means Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 are in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Has Been Doing This All October
The Brewers became the fourth team ever to open a postseason with five straight games decided by two runs or fewer. They have not blown anybody out. They have also not lost the close ones.
A roster built on contact, defense and a deep bullpen does not need to out-slug Los Angeles. It needs to keep every game inside two runs and win the last inning, and that is precisely what it has been doing since the wild card round.
The Dodgers spent the winter assembling a rotation designed to end series like this early. Game 1 went to a bunt and a 21-year-old. Game 2 is Monday in Milwaukee.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.