Brewers roar back past Dodgers, seize 2-0 NLCS lead as Contreras delivers three RBIs

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday night at American Family Field, taking a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series behind three RBIs from catcher William Contreras and another abbreviated outing from Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The result leaves the two-time defending World Series champions searching for answers against a Brewers team they swept in last year's NLCS.

Milwaukee trailed twice and tied the score twice before pulling away for good in the sixth inning, getting key contributions up and down its lineup while a parade of Brewers relievers shut the Dodgers down over the final innings. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

A back-and-forth game Milwaukee finished on top

Los Angeles scored first in the top of the first, but Contreras answered immediately with an RBI single that tied the game at 1-1. The Dodgers moved back ahead in the third when Tommy Edman scored on an errant pickoff throw by Brewers starter Logan Henderson, but Milwaukee reclaimed the lead in the bottom half on a bases-loaded walk to Jake Bauers and a two-run single from Christian Yelich that chased Yamamoto from the game.

The Dodgers tied it again in the fifth without recording a hit in the inning, scoring on a Kyle Tucker-led sequence that included another Henderson throwing error and a sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman. Contreras settled the matter from there. He hit a solo home run later that same frame to tie the score at 4-4, then singled home the go-ahead run in the sixth after David Hamilton reached on a hit-by-pitch and advanced on a pickoff throw that got away from Freeman. Milwaukee never trailed again, adding insurance runs in the eighth on RBI singles from Brice Turang and Bauers.

The numbers behind a lopsided series

Contreras finished the night 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs, giving him three home runs and five RBIs through the Brewers' six postseason games. Los Angeles managed just three hits as a team and went hitless with runners in scoring position for the fourth time in six playoff games this October, part of a postseason-long slump that has left Shohei Ohtani at 3-for-20 and Will Smith at 1-for-23. Yamamoto, who entered the night 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances, lasted only 2 2/3 innings, the shortest postseason start of his career.

Milwaukee's bullpen, by contrast, retired the final 15 Dodgers batters it faced in order after Henderson departed. According to figures compiled after the win, Brewers relievers have now allowed just one earned run across 28 2/3 postseason innings, with Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combining to close out the game. Historically, teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series go on to win roughly 83 percent of the time, though 16 clubs have rallied from that deficit, including last year's Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS.

A franchise still chasing its first NL pennant

The stakes extend well beyond one series for Milwaukee. The Brewers have reached the World Series only once, in 1982, when the franchise played in the American League, and a World Series game in Milwaukee would be the city's first in 44 years. A trip back now would be the club's first as a National League team and would end decades of frustration. Contreras, acquired from Atlanta in a December 2022 three-team trade that sent catcher Sean Murphy to the Braves, has become one of the centerpieces of that rebuild, winning Silver Slugger Awards in 2023 and 2024 and making his third All-Star team this past summer.

For the Dodgers, the hole is unfamiliar territory. Los Angeles has not opened a postseason series 0-2 since the 2023 NLDS, and the current roster — built to become the first National League team to win three straight championships — is now one loss from a trip home to face elimination. Manager Dave Roberts said the problem was execution rather than approach, telling reporters that Yamamoto "just wasn't sharp today," according to the winners-and-losers breakdown of Game 2.

What comes next

Brewers manager Pat Murphy, whose team won the most games in baseball during the regular season a year ago only to be swept by a similar Dodgers club in the 2025 NLCS, framed this year's group differently after the win.

"They're hungry. That's the big difference," Murphy said of his team, adding that last year's Dodgers "won't be denied" mentality has been matched by his own roster this October.

Los Angeles infielder Mookie Betts, who is 5-for-21 without an extra-base hit this postseason, called Milwaukee "a really good ballclub" with a deep bullpen and said the Dodgers' task was simply to start getting hits, not to overhaul their approach. Teoscar Hernández struck a similar note, saying the team has not lost faith despite dropping the first two games.

Game 3 is set for Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium, with Blake Snell scheduled to start for Los Angeles and Tyler Glasnow lined up for Game 4. Robert Gasser is expected to start for Milwaukee in Game 3. Roberts has said he needs a deep outing from Snell to let the Dodgers deploy their bullpen with a lead rather than chasing the game, as happened in each of the first two contests.

A tying home run in the fifth inning turned out to be the pivot point of Game 2, and the Brewers will need more of the same offensive consistency as the series shifts to Los Angeles, where a Dodgers team still capable of a historic three-peat will try to avoid falling into an 0-3 hole that almost no postseason club has ever overcome.