Heroes, zeros and other observations from the Dodgers’ 6-4, season-ending loss to the Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, which completed a pennant-clinching sweep for Milwaukee:
Zero: The Dodgers’ offense –– after the second inning
In 2004, one clutch stolen base changed everything for the Boston Red Sox.
In 2026, it briefly felt like one cathartic swing could potentially spark something similar for the Dodgers.
In the bottom of the second inning Thursday, the team finally had its breakthrough moment, taking a 4-0 lead after a long-awaited home run swing from Shohei Ohtani.
It was the four-time MVP’s first long ball since Aug. 18, snapping his career-long 25-game homer drought. It was also the Dodgers’ first big fly of this series, representing the first true sign of life all week from their slumping offense.
However, it wouldn’t last.
As the Brewers came storming back, the Dodgers’ bats once again went mysteriously cold.
Ex-Dodger Dustin May gave up the home run to Ohtani, but then responded with a couple of shut-down innings. Left-hander JoJo Romero came out of the Milwaukee bullpen next, and also threw up a couple scoreless frames, stranding the potential tying run in scoring position in the sixth by striking out Max Muncy and sending him spiking his bat into the dirt.
From there, the Brewers only needed one more arm.
Hard-throwing southpaw Aaron Ashby entered for the seventh and gave up a leadoff double to Andy Pages, but stranded him by striking out Ohtani on three pitches and getting Mookie Betts to bounce one to short.
In the eighth, the Dodgers had life again after Will Smith lined a ball into the right-field corner that kicked away from Sal Frelick, allowing him to reach third with one out. But Ashby buckled down once more, getting Kyle Tucker to hit a shallow fly ball and Teoscar Hernández to strike out swinging.
In the ninth, Ashby returned for a third inning of work, and retired the side in order.
Game, set, match. National League pennant to the Brewers.
Hero: Jake Bauers
If you want to know why this year’s Brewers team is different from the one that got swept by the Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, all you have to do is look at the series MVP winner.
Before this season, Jake Bauers was a journeyman slugger who had never hit better than .235 in a season while playing for five different big-league teams.
But this year, he blossomed in Milwaukee’s player development factory, hitting .266 with 26 home runs and 86 RBIs.
And this week, he inflicted pain on the Dodgers time and again, following up his pivotal 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, and a go-ahead two-run homer in an 11-pitch battle against Blake Snell in Game 3, with a couple more heroic moments that helped the Brewers overcome their four-run deficit.
In the fourth inning, he hit a two-run ground-rule double that cut the Dodgers’ lead in half. In the fifth, he drew a bases-loaded walk that erased it, giving him an NLCS-best six RBIs in this four-game series.
Like the rest of the Brewers’ relentless lineup, he fought off pitches, worked long at-bats, and kept Dodgers pitching under constant stress.
For a small-market franchise that has had to find different ways –– and undervalued players –– to win, he has been the epitome of their success, and the No. 1 reason this week they won their first pennant in almost half-a-century.
Unsung hero: Pat Murphy
Last year, Pat Murphy tried playing the underdog card against the Dodgers.
This year, the Brewers’ manager implored his club to fight.
The shift in mentality worked. The baseball lifer helped inspire Milwaukee’s NLCS upset, setting the tone for a team that –– at the plate, on the mound, in the field, and on the bases –– did every little thing right to flip this year’s script.
The Brewers’ triumph marked only the second time in MLB history a club had been swept by an opponent in the playoffs one year, then come back to eliminate them the next. This was the first time such a reversal happened with a sweep.
Murphy challenged his team. And they responded.
Stat of the game: Six
That’s how many different times the Dodgers held a lead in this series. Once in Game 1. Three times in Game 2. After Will Smith’s go-ahead sixth-inning double in Game 3. And after Thursday’s four-run outburst in the second.
Every time, Milwaukee answered.
Not once did the Dodgers even stay in front for longer than three innings.
