The Dodgers’ clubhouse was quiet Thursday night, a sharp turn from the champagne-and-cigar scenes that followed the last two seasons. Across Dodger Stadium, Milwaukee celebrated a 6-4 win in Game 4 that finished an NL Championship Series sweep and sent the Brewers to their first World Series since 1982.
Los Angeles came into October chasing a third straight championship, a feat no National League club has achieved. Instead, the defending back-to-back champions were left to reckon with an offense that stalled, starters who were pushed around and a Brewers club that found every opening.
Quick facts
- Milwaukee swept the Dodgers in the NLCS with a 6-4 Game 4 victory.
- The Brewers reached the World Series for the first time since 1982.
- Dodgers starters surrendered 13 earned runs in 18 NLCS innings, a 6.50 ERA.
- Los Angeles went 5-for-43 with runners in scoring position during the series.
- Miguel Rojas is retiring after the season.
Manager Dave Roberts, Rojas and Mookie Betts addressed the club after the loss. Rojas, closing out his playing career, said the ending hurt because every team wants to win its final game, but added that talent does not come with guarantees in baseball.
The Dodgers had escaped trouble in each of their previous title runs. They rallied from a 2-1 deficit against San Diego in the 2024 NLDS and overcame a 3-2 hole against Toronto in the 2025 World Series. This time, down 3-0, there was no route back. The 2004 Red Sox remain the only club to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven postseason series.
There was another twist in the sweep. Los Angeles had swept Milwaukee in their previous postseason meeting, but the Brewers answered in full, becoming only the second team to win a postseason rematch after having been swept the year before. The 1923 Yankees were the first; Milwaukee became the first to return the favor with a sweep.
“Sometimes you just get beat,” Freddie Freeman said. “You have to give the Brewers credit. They played really good baseball.”
For three years, the Dodgers followed a similar script: major offseason additions, a long list of in-season injuries and a postseason roster carrying a few clear weaknesses. Their 2024 rotation lacked depth, while the 2025 bullpen was unreliable. They survived those problems on the way to the franchise’s eighth and ninth championships.
This club had a different October problem. The Dodgers handled Atlanta in four games in the NLDS, but Milwaukee squeezed an already inconsistent lineup and removed Los Angeles’ apparent advantage on the mound.
Trade Deadline pickup Tarik Skubal took the loss after allowing two runs over five innings. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was chased after 2 2/3 innings, the briefest postseason outing of his career. Blake Snell gave up three home runs after going 10 regular-season starts without allowing one, and the Brewers also erased a 4-0 deficit against Tyler Glasnow.
Skubal said the Dodgers’ recent championship run can make the task appear simpler than it is. Winning a World Series, he said, is baseball’s hardest assignment, and if it were easy, far more teams would do it.
The hitters never gave the pitching staff much room. Kyle Tucker, whose first season of a four-year, $240 million deal had been a disappointment, turned into the club’s steadiest postseason bat, hitting .333/.419/.519. But the larger lineup went cold at the wrong time, especially with runners aboard.
Shohei Ohtani, playing through lingering right biceps and left knee injuries, delivered a three-run homer in Game 4. It gave the Dodgers a jolt, but Milwaukee’s pressure never relented. Betts said the club created chances, which is all an offense can ask for, but acknowledged that converting those chances is not automatic.
The bullpen, much improved over the regular season, also cracked in the clincher. Tanner Scott gave up Garrett Mitchell’s go-ahead homer in the sixth inning. Edwin Díaz, a major winter addition who struggled during the regular season before finding his form in October, allowed a solo homer to David Hamilton while covering the final three innings.
There may have been fatigue in the room as well. The Dodgers have played through two extended championship seasons after opening the 2024 campaign in Seoul and the 2025 season in Tokyo. Their position-player group was the oldest in the majors, with an average age of 30.9.
Max Muncy called it a special clubhouse and said the loss was difficult to explain. The Dodgers did not play well enough, he said, but the group emptied itself for three straight years before finally running out of steam.
The window remains open because much of the core is under control for years ahead. Still, the coming offseason could mark a handoff of sorts, with younger players and prospects needed to refresh an aging position-player group. That could mean some familiar faces are no longer part of the next version of the Dodgers.
Roberts said losing is never easy, though being beaten cleanly can make it easier to process. Preparation and desire do not remove the uncertainty, he said, and that uncertainty is part of what makes the sport matter.
