Brewers rally from 4-0 hole to beat Dodgers 6-4 and reach first World Series since 1982
Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell propelled the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Thursday, sending Milwaukee to their first World Series appearance since 1982. The Brewers completed a four-game sweep of the NLCS after overcoming an early 4-0 deficit.
Milwaukee overturned a second-inning four-run hole to secure the series, avenging last season when Milwaukee were swept out of the NLCS by Los Angeles. The club’s only previous World Series outing came in 1982, when, as an American League team, they lost in seven games to the St Louis Cardinals. Christian Yelich, a Brewers veteran, described the team’s mindset after falling behind: “We got down early tonight and we were like, it’s going to be a great story,” Yelich said. “We’re going to come back and win this. Like, stay together, start chipping away. And that’s exactly what they did.”
The Dodgers appeared in command in the second inning when Andy Pages hit a one-out RBI single and Shohei Ohtani followed with a towering three-run blast to make it 4-0. Jake Bauers began Milwaukee’s recovery with a two-run ground-rule double in the fourth and later drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game in the fifth. David Hamilton produced an RBI single in the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-3 and end Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow’s outing.
Catcher William Contreras directed Milwaukee’s bullpen in a bullpen game while four Brewers pitchers combined to hold Los Angeles scoreless over the final seven innings. JoJo Romero worked two innings and Aaron Ashby handled the final three frames for his second save of the postseason. “Playing with that chip on our shoulder,” Ashby said. “You don’t ever know what to expect going into a series like that last year. You don’t know how bad it can be, and then it was as bad as it was. And we came out and we survived, and we came back this year, and those guys played their tails off.”
Milwaukee went ahead for good in the sixth when Garrett Mitchell, a Southern California native and UCLA alumnus, greeted Tanner Scott with a leadoff home run. “I’ve always dreamt of moments like these as a kid,” Mitchell said. Hamilton sealed the win with a two-out home run in the ninth off Edwin Diaz; Hamilton had just four homers in the regular season.
Tyler Glasnow allowed four runs on three hits and two walks over 4.1 innings and struck out six. Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips loaded the bases with two outs on a pair of walks late in the fifth, and Alex Vesia, who replaced Phillips, walked Bauers on four pitches to tie the game. Los Angeles failed to convert subsequent opportunities, including a one-out double from Kyle Tucker in the sixth and a leadoff double from Pages in the seventh; an eighth-inning double and an error put Will Smith on third with one out before Ashby retired Tucker on a shallow fly and struck out Teoscar Hernandez to end the threat.
Milwaukee will open the World Series at home on 23 October against the winner of the American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays; the Guardians hold a 2-1 lead after winning 3-2 on Thursday.