Brewers complete stunning sweep of Dodgers, reach first World Series since 1982

LOS ANGELES — The Milwaukee Brewers completed a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series on Thursday night, rallying from an early four-run deficit to win Game 4, 6-4, at Dodger Stadium. The victory sends Milwaukee to the World Series for the first time since 1982 and ends the two-time defending champion Dodgers' bid for a third straight title.

What happened

Los Angeles looked ready to force a fifth game when the Dodgers scored four runs in the bottom of the second inning, the last three coming on a Shohei Ohtani home run, his first of this postseason. From there, the Brewers' offense and a parade of relievers took over. Milwaukee answered with two runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth to tie the game, then a go-ahead home run from center fielder Garrett Mitchell in the sixth. David Hamilton added a solo shot in the ninth for insurance, and closer Aaron Ashby shut the door with three scoreless innings to finish off the sweep and the series.

It was Milwaukee's fourth consecutive win of the series after taking Game 3 on Wednesday, and it completed an unusual piece of history: according to the Associated Press, the Brewers became the first major league team to sweep a best-of-seven postseason series after having been swept by that same opponent in the previous postseason — Los Angeles took all four games of last year's NLCS. Milwaukee also became the first team to sweep a series in which it trailed in every game.

The numbers

The final box score shows the Dodgers out-hit Milwaukee 8-5 but managed only four runs after the second inning. Andy Pages' RBI single and Ohtani's three-run homer accounted for the entire Dodgers scoring output. Milwaukee's reply came in pieces: a two-run, ground-rule double from first baseman Jake Bauers in the fourth, an RBI single from Hamilton and a bases-loaded walk by Bauers in the fifth, then Mitchell's 409-foot, two-out home run in the sixth — his first career homer on an 0-2 count, and his second of the series after also going deep in Wednesday's win. Hamilton, batting ninth with only four home runs in the regular season, took closer Edwin Díaz deep with two outs in the ninth for the final margin.

On the mound, Milwaukee never used a traditional starter, instead stitching together innings from JoJo Romero, who got the win, Shane Drohan and Ashby, who worked the final three frames for the save and struck out Ohtani with a runner on third in the seventh. Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow struck out six over 4⅓ innings but was charged with all four Milwaukee runs that had scored by the time he left; reliever Tanner Scott took the loss after Milwaukee tied the game in the fifth.

How Milwaukee got here

The Brewers finished the regular season with 103 wins, the most in the majors, then beat San Diego in the NL Division Series to set up the rematch with Los Angeles. The two clubs had met in the NLCS exactly one year earlier, when the Dodgers swept Milwaukee on their way to a second consecutive championship. That history hung over this series' opening days, with the Brewers again cast as decided underdogs against a Dodgers roster built around Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and a $300 million-plus payroll. Instead, Milwaukee controlled the series from the outset, winning low-scoring, bullpen-driven games that mirrored the identity the club has built over Pat Murphy's tenure as manager: pitching depth, aggressive baserunning and a lineup with few recognizable stars outside Christian Yelich.

Garrett Mitchell's two home runs in the series' final two games and the length Milwaukee's bullpen provided across all four games were the throughline of the sweep. The Brewers' relievers repeatedly stranded Dodgers runners in scoring position, including multiple innings Thursday where Los Angeles had the potential tying run aboard. Milwaukee entered October with question marks about its rotation depth; instead, a bullpen-first approach became the series' defining feature, with starters rarely asked to face a lineup a third time.

Who is affected

Bauers was named NLCS Most Valuable Player after driving in three runs in the clincher, capping a series in which he reached base in all four games. For the Dodgers, the loss ends a bid to become the first National League team to win three consecutive titles and only the second team in any league to do it since the New York Yankees' run from 1998 to 2000; it also closes the book on a season complicated by injuries to Ohtani and other veterans late in the year. Manager Dave Roberts' club, which had been favored to return to the World Series for a third straight October, now heads into an offseason facing questions about an aging core and a rotation that could not hold an early lead in any of the four games.

For Milwaukee, the result is the franchise's second pennant in its history and its first appearance in the World Series since 1982, when the Brewers — then an American League club — lost a seven-game series to the St. Louis Cardinals. The team's long wait, and the way this comeback unfolded a year after being swept by this same opponent, is central to how the win is being framed nationally, and it gives a Milwaukee fan base that watched the franchise post a 103-win regular season a chance to see its roster play for a championship for the first time in more than four decades.

Reaction

Murphy, in postgame comments relayed by the Associated Press, credited his roster's resolve against a Dodgers team with a far more decorated lineup.

"They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we've got a bunch of gamers — and the gamers won this week," said Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy. "I think the Dodgers figured out that we came in here with a little different attitude this year."

Yelich, the Brewers' captain, described the dugout mood after falling behind 4-0. "We got down early tonight and we were like, it's going to be a great story," he said. "We're going to come back and win this. Like, stay together, start chipping away. And that's exactly what they did." Mitchell called the sixth-inning home run "absolutely surreal," adding that "the belief in that dugout got stronger and stronger." Bauers said there was "never a doubt in that dugout what was going to happen tonight." Roberts, for his part, was gracious in defeat: "I'm not used to those consolation speeches. Those guys played flawless. You got to sometimes tip your cap."

What happens next

Milwaukee now has a week off before hosting Game 1 of the World Series on Oct. 23, with the opponent still to be determined. The American League Championship Series between Cleveland and Tampa Bay has run into its own complications: Cleveland leads that series 2-1, but Thursday's scheduled Game 4 was postponed by rain and pushed to Friday, bumping the remainder of the postseason schedule back a day. Whichever team wins that series will travel to Milwaukee for the opener. For the Brewers, the layoff offers time to set a World Series rotation and for a bullpen that carried them through October to rest before the sport's biggest stage — one Milwaukee has not reached in 44 years.