Milwaukee opened the National League Championship Series by doing exactly what it could not do a year ago: protect home field. Behind Jacob Misiorowski’s escape work, Brice Turang’s game-tying homer and a clean night from the bullpen, the Brewers edged the Dodgers, 2-1, on Sunday at American Family Field.
Key takeaways
- The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the NLCS rematch after Los Angeles swept last year’s series.
- Misiorowski surrendered one run over 4 1/3 innings despite allowing five hits and three walks.
- Turang tied the game in the fourth inning with a left-on-left home run against Tarik Skubal.
- Garrett Mitchell scored the deciding run in the fifth after reaching on a walk and moving up on a bunt.
- Game 2 is scheduled for Monday at 5 p.m. ET, with FOX, FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One carrying the broadcast.
Misiorowski bends, then Milwaukee takes control
The Dodgers made Milwaukee’s ace work from the opening innings, and the second was the biggest test. Shohei Ohtani led off with a walk, then came home on Andy Pages’ RBI single. Los Angeles put runners on every base with one out, leaving Misiorowski in a spot where one more mistake could have broken the game open.
Instead, he induced Kiké Hernández into an inning-ending double play. Cooper Pratt made the pickup at shortstop, and Turang completed the turn at second, a sharp bit of infield work that kept the deficit at a single run.
Misiorowski did not have his usual swing-and-miss command, but he found ways through the trouble. The Dodgers pushed his second-inning workload to 35 pitches and kept extending at-bats. Still, he was charged with only one run across 4 1/3 innings.
His fourth inning included another difficult moment. A balk ruling erased what might have been the final out of the frame, but Misiorowski answered by striking out Kyle Tucker with a cutter. He left the mound with a fist pump after finishing the inning, and Milwaukee’s offense immediately rewarded him.
The performance reinforced the case for Misiorowski as the likely National League Cy Young Award winner. His best stuff was not fully present, yet the Dodgers came away with only one run.
Turang supplies the power, Brewers manufacture the difference
Skubal was the sharper and more economical starter early, but the fourth inning brought one fastball Turang did not miss. After getting ahead 2-0, the Brewers second baseman turned on a pitch over too much of the plate and drove it into Milwaukee’s bullpen in left-center field. The solo shot pulled the Brewers even at 1-1.
Three pitches after Misiorowski struck out Tucker to close the fourth, the game had changed. Turang’s homer supplied the long-ball answer, then Milwaukee went back to the brand of offense that carried it through a 103-win regular season.
Mitchell opened the fifth by drawing a walk and advanced into scoring position on a bunt. Luis Lara followed with the run-scoring hit that put Milwaukee ahead, 2-1.
From there, the Brewers bullpen handled the rest. Milwaukee had its ace, a loud home crowd and a one-run lead to protect, and this time the club held the line. The Dodgers won the opening game in Milwaukee last October before rolling through the rest of the NLCS; the Brewers have made sure this rematch begins on different footing.
