Garrett Mitchell’s sixth-inning home run turned a four-run hole into a lead Thursday night, and the Brewers held on for a 6-4 win over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium to complete an NLCS sweep and claim the National League pennant.
The result
Milwaukee is headed to the World Series for the first time in 44 years, and it will bring the Fall Classic back to its home park for the first time since 1982. Game 1 is scheduled for Oct. 23.
The clincher came in the same Los Angeles ballpark where Milwaukee’s previous postseason had ended abruptly. The Dodgers had swept the Brewers a year earlier on their way to a second straight World Series championship. Los Angeles had also ended Milwaukee’s October run three times over the past decade.
This time, the Brewers reversed the history in emphatic fashion. They became the first club in Major League Baseball history to sweep a team that had swept it out of the postseason the year before.
It did not begin like a celebration. Los Angeles jumped ahead 4-0 in the second inning, with Shohei Ohtani delivering the biggest blow on a three-run homer that reached the deep right-field pavilion. Dodger Stadium was rocking, and the defending champions appeared ready to extend the series.
Milwaukee answered with the steady push that defined its postseason. The Brewers scored twice in the fourth, added another two runs in the fifth and finally moved in front when Mitchell went deep in the sixth.
From there, Milwaukee protected the 6-4 advantage through the final three innings. When the last out arrived, Brewers players poured from the first-base dugout, celebrating a pennant earned against the club that had stood in their way so often before.
