The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 to sweep the NLCS and advance to the World Series.
The Story
The Milwaukee Brewers are going back to the World Series for the first time since 1982 after sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
In Game 4 on Thursday, Milwaukee won 6-4 to complete the four-game sweep. Manager Pat Murphy said the team was “hungry” and set out to “give it our best shot to win,” adding, “We weren’t coming in to play patty-cake.”
Garrett Mitchell hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning, and the Brewers’ relievers held off late rallies to earn their first NL pennant and second overall.
Milwaukee’s comeback started after the Dodgers jumped ahead early, with Shohei Ohtani hitting his first home run this postseason to put Los Angeles ahead 4-0 in the second inning. The Brewers closed the gap in the fifth when the Dodgers bullpen issued four walks and Milwaukee stole two bases, pulling the score to 4-3.
Milwaukee took the lead in the sixth as Mitchell, after falling behind 0-2 to reliever Tanner Scott, took three straight balls to run the count full and then launched a 409-foot drive to center field. Mitchell also homered in the Brewers’ 6-2 victory on Wednesday.
The game tightened again in the ninth when No. 9 hitter David Hamilton hit a two-out solo home run off Edwin Díaz, giving Milwaukee a two-run cushion. Christian Yelich later described the team’s approach as staying together and “start chipping away,” saying, “And that’s exactly what they did.”
Milwaukee’s pitching included Aaron Ashby, who pitched three scoreless innings to earn the win and struck out Ohtani swinging before recording additional outs in the seventh and eighth. JoJo Romero struck out Max Muncy with Kyle Tucker at third to end the sixth.
With the sweep completed, the Brewers will have a week off before beginning the World Series. The opening games will be against Cleveland or Tampa Bay on Oct. 23, with the series schedule to follow.
Mitchell said the moment felt “absolutely surreal,” adding that “the battle-tested Brewers” kept believing after being down early and that the “belief in that dugout got stronger and stronger.”
The Brewers last appeared in the World Series in 1982, when the franchise was in the American League and lost a seven-game series to the St. Louis Cardinals. Los Angeles’s attempt to win a third straight NL title ended with the series loss.
A previous version of this story was corrected to fix the sequence of Dodgers pitchers and Brewers walks in the top of the fifth inning.
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