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Ah, the Dodgers. We meet again.
The last time the Milwaukee Brewers reached the National League Championship Series, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers who stood in the way, and the ensuing seven-game battle ended in heartbreak for the Brewers.
Just like in 2018, the Brewers will have home-field advantage. Just like in 2018, the Dodgers will nonetheless be seen in many circles as the more likely team to advance to the World Series.
Let's see if 2025 is different.
The Brewers will host the Dodgers for Game 1 of the series on Oct. 13. Here's what to know about the last team standing in the way of Milwaukee's first World Series appearance since 1982.
You may have heard. The Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers this season.
The Dodgers hadn't been swept in a season series of at least six games since 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals turned the feat over seven meetings. Before that, it was the 1994 Atlanta Braves (six games).
But in 2025, Milwaukee won all six meetings against Los Angeles. The wins all came in July (the penultimate series before the all-star break and the first series back after the time off), part of an 11-game winning streak that served as the prologue to a franchise-record 14-game run in August.
The Brewers were able to beat Yamamoto, Glasnow and Kershaw, but they didn't have to face Blake Snell or a fully-revitalized Ohtani on the hill during their six wins. The Dodgers have all of that at their disposal now.
Snell was dynamite in his two playoff starts thus far, and Yamamoto and Ohtani have delivered as well. Were it not for the bullpen, Los Angeles would be nearly unstoppable.
The Dodgers starters were unquestionably the best staff in baseball in September, posting an astonishing 2.07 ERA and a 4.9 Wins Above Replacement according to Fangraphs. They had 166 strikeouts in just 130⅔ innings.
But then there's the bullpen.
That group had a 4.90 ERA in September, and through the first four games of the postseason, the Dodgers had allowed eight runs in 10⅓ innings. Blake Treinen has been in a major rut, and Scott never pitched in the NLDS, instead dropped from the NLDS roster abruptly with what was termed a minor injury, so he will be ineligible in the NLCS.
It's not as if the bullpen has been excellent all year before the final months, either. The 4.27 ERA from the bullpen over the whole season ranks in the bottom third of baseball.
The Dodgers have perhaps found a salve for their troubles, though, by putting young Japanese star Roki Sasaki in the closer's role. Sasaki, whose unique free agency nonetheless found him landing with a baseball powerhouse, has been hurt most of the year and battled ineffectiveness early, but putting him in the closer's role has given the Dodgers and Sasaki some stability.
He pitched only 36 innings this year, and only two as a reliever before the end of the regular season. But he's been effecitve in his chances during the postseason, with three games finished and two saves before his best showing yet, a three-inning relief stint with the game tied in Game 4 of the NLDS, ultimately a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Kenosha Indian Trail alumnus Gavin Lux won two World Series rings with the Dodgers, but he was traded before the season and found himself eliminated at the hands of the Dodgers in the wild-card round, now with the Cincinnati Reds.
But there's plenty of Wisconsin presence on the roster. Outfielder Alex Call (River Falls) was acquired at the trade deadline from the Washington Nationals, and catcher Ben Rortvedt (Verona) was added from the Tampa Bay Rays, where he was teammates with current Brewers backup Danny Jansen.
Rortvedt posted a .636 OPS in 18 games, getting a prominent role when starter Will Smith got injured late in the year. Call has a .717 OPS in 85 plate appearances.
Ohtani has been a force of nature yet again, with 55 homers and 20 stolen bases, posting a .392 on-base percentage and a league-leading on-base plus slugging of 1.014. It's almost a stone-cold lock that he will do something astounding over the course of a seven-game series.
Ohtani has home runs this season against Misiorowski, Peralta and Quintana.
Did we notice that he went 1 for 18 with nine strikeouts in the NLDS series against Philadelphia? Sure, but you can't fool us. He remains the most dangerous bat in baseball.
Betts may have had a down year overall, but he has an .870 OPS since Aug. 15 and appears to be as difficult an out as ever. Freddie Freeman likewise has an OPS over .900 over the final six weeks of the season. Then you have a healthier Smith and players such as Teoscar Hernández and Enrique Hernández bouncing back from below-standard regular seasons to deliver their seemingly usual collection of big playoff moments.
Their lineup isn't free of question marks, like Max Muncy and Tommy Edman. But those players have had moments in the past and remain a threat. Andy Pages might not jump out as a "name" in the lineup, but he posted a .774 OPS this season.
The 2018 NLCS is the obvious parallel here, a series that ended in American Family Field when the Dodgers eliminated the Brewers with a 5-1 win in the seventh game. But the teams met again in 2020 during the pandemic-altered postseason, when Los Angeles defeated the Brewers, two games to none.
The Brewers played the Dodgers tight in both games on paper, though Milwaukee never ended an inning with the lead. Milwaukee lost, 4-2 and 3-0, surrendering just one extra-base hit in the second game but themselves finishing with just four singles.
Kershaw, who got the start in that shutout win for Los Angeles, is now coming out of the bullpen in the postseason, but it remains very much in doubt whether he makes the NLCS roster at all. He had a blowup outing in Game 3 of the NLDS against Philadelphia.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Seven things to know about the Brewers' NLCS opponent, the Dodgers
Continue reading...
The last time the Milwaukee Brewers reached the National League Championship Series, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers who stood in the way, and the ensuing seven-game battle ended in heartbreak for the Brewers.
Just like in 2018, the Brewers will have home-field advantage. Just like in 2018, the Dodgers will nonetheless be seen in many circles as the more likely team to advance to the World Series.
Let's see if 2025 is different.
The Brewers will host the Dodgers for Game 1 of the series on Oct. 13. Here's what to know about the last team standing in the way of Milwaukee's first World Series appearance since 1982.
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How did the Dodgers fare against the Brewers in 2025?
You may have heard. The Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers this season.
The Dodgers hadn't been swept in a season series of at least six games since 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals turned the feat over seven meetings. Before that, it was the 1994 Atlanta Braves (six games).
But in 2025, Milwaukee won all six meetings against Los Angeles. The wins all came in July (the penultimate series before the all-star break and the first series back after the time off), part of an 11-game winning streak that served as the prologue to a franchise-record 14-game run in August.
- July 7: Brewers 9, Dodgers 1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto didn't make it out of the first inning when the Brewers plated five runs, including three on a home run swing by Andrew Vaughn in his very first at-bat as a member of the Brewers. Meanwhile, Freddy Peralta pitched six shutout innings. Christian Yelich also homered.
- July 8: Brewers 3, Dodgers 1. It was an outing that springboarded Jacob Misiorowski to the national consciousness and maybe to an all-star berth. He allowed one earned run on four hits (with the run on Shohei Ohtani's leadoff homer) in six innings, with 12 strikeouts as he out-dueled Clayton Kershaw. Vaughn and Isaac Collins had a tying and go-ahead single in the fourth, and the score remained 2-1 until an insurance run from Sal Frelick on a homer in the eighth.
- July 9: Brewers 3, Dodgers 2. Jackson Chourio singled in the 10th inning for a walk-off winner, one frame after Trevor Megill struck out all three Dodgers to keep a run off the board. The Brewers were down to their last out in the ninth, but Vaughn singled in the tying tally against Tanner Scott. José Quintana allowed just two hits in six innings but did issue a bases-loaded walk to Ohtani.
- July 18: Brewers 2, Dodgers 0. Straight out of the all-star break, Quinn Priester struck out 10 batters and allowed just three hits in six scoreless innings, and Brewers relievers faced the minimum the rest of the way. Caleb Durbin provided the offense, with an RBI double off an otherwise very tough Tyler Glasnow in the fifth and a homer against Kirby Yates in the seventh.
- July 19: Brewers 8, Dodgers 7. Both teams scored four runs in the third, with Peralta and Emmet Sheehan struggling. But Collins homered in the top of the fourth, Vaughn added a huge insurance run with a seventh-inning single, and Joey Ortiz (!) homered in the eighth, which loomed large when the Dodgers homered twice in the bottom half. Megill worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
- July 20: Brewers 6, Dodgers 5. The ninth was a much bigger adventure this time around. The Dodgers loaded the bases against Abner Uribe in the ninth, then scored a run on a Vaughn error, but Mookie Betts lined out to center for the final out. Collins broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth with a two-run single, and the Brewers overcame homers from Ohtani and former Brewers farmhand Esteury Ruiz, the only home run he hit this season.
The starting pitching is truly elite
The Brewers were able to beat Yamamoto, Glasnow and Kershaw, but they didn't have to face Blake Snell or a fully-revitalized Ohtani on the hill during their six wins. The Dodgers have all of that at their disposal now.
Snell was dynamite in his two playoff starts thus far, and Yamamoto and Ohtani have delivered as well. Were it not for the bullpen, Los Angeles would be nearly unstoppable.
The Dodgers starters were unquestionably the best staff in baseball in September, posting an astonishing 2.07 ERA and a 4.9 Wins Above Replacement according to Fangraphs. They had 166 strikeouts in just 130⅔ innings.
But then there's the bullpen.
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The bullpen has been leaking throughout September and October
That group had a 4.90 ERA in September, and through the first four games of the postseason, the Dodgers had allowed eight runs in 10⅓ innings. Blake Treinen has been in a major rut, and Scott never pitched in the NLDS, instead dropped from the NLDS roster abruptly with what was termed a minor injury, so he will be ineligible in the NLCS.
It's not as if the bullpen has been excellent all year before the final months, either. The 4.27 ERA from the bullpen over the whole season ranks in the bottom third of baseball.
But the bullpen may have found an answer in Roki Sasaki
The Dodgers have perhaps found a salve for their troubles, though, by putting young Japanese star Roki Sasaki in the closer's role. Sasaki, whose unique free agency nonetheless found him landing with a baseball powerhouse, has been hurt most of the year and battled ineffectiveness early, but putting him in the closer's role has given the Dodgers and Sasaki some stability.
He pitched only 36 innings this year, and only two as a reliever before the end of the regular season. But he's been effecitve in his chances during the postseason, with three games finished and two saves before his best showing yet, a three-inning relief stint with the game tied in Game 4 of the NLDS, ultimately a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
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There are two Wisconsinites on the roster
Kenosha Indian Trail alumnus Gavin Lux won two World Series rings with the Dodgers, but he was traded before the season and found himself eliminated at the hands of the Dodgers in the wild-card round, now with the Cincinnati Reds.
But there's plenty of Wisconsin presence on the roster. Outfielder Alex Call (River Falls) was acquired at the trade deadline from the Washington Nationals, and catcher Ben Rortvedt (Verona) was added from the Tampa Bay Rays, where he was teammates with current Brewers backup Danny Jansen.
Rortvedt posted a .636 OPS in 18 games, getting a prominent role when starter Will Smith got injured late in the year. Call has a .717 OPS in 85 plate appearances.
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Shohei Ohtani. Enough said.
Ohtani has been a force of nature yet again, with 55 homers and 20 stolen bases, posting a .392 on-base percentage and a league-leading on-base plus slugging of 1.014. It's almost a stone-cold lock that he will do something astounding over the course of a seven-game series.
Ohtani has home runs this season against Misiorowski, Peralta and Quintana.
Did we notice that he went 1 for 18 with nine strikeouts in the NLDS series against Philadelphia? Sure, but you can't fool us. He remains the most dangerous bat in baseball.
The Dodgers offense is still plenty good, and it's the same names as always
Betts may have had a down year overall, but he has an .870 OPS since Aug. 15 and appears to be as difficult an out as ever. Freddie Freeman likewise has an OPS over .900 over the final six weeks of the season. Then you have a healthier Smith and players such as Teoscar Hernández and Enrique Hernández bouncing back from below-standard regular seasons to deliver their seemingly usual collection of big playoff moments.
Their lineup isn't free of question marks, like Max Muncy and Tommy Edman. But those players have had moments in the past and remain a threat. Andy Pages might not jump out as a "name" in the lineup, but he posted a .774 OPS this season.
The Brewers have seen the Dodgers before in the postseason
The 2018 NLCS is the obvious parallel here, a series that ended in American Family Field when the Dodgers eliminated the Brewers with a 5-1 win in the seventh game. But the teams met again in 2020 during the pandemic-altered postseason, when Los Angeles defeated the Brewers, two games to none.
The Brewers played the Dodgers tight in both games on paper, though Milwaukee never ended an inning with the lead. Milwaukee lost, 4-2 and 3-0, surrendering just one extra-base hit in the second game but themselves finishing with just four singles.
Kershaw, who got the start in that shutout win for Los Angeles, is now coming out of the bullpen in the postseason, but it remains very much in doubt whether he makes the NLCS roster at all. He had a blowup outing in Game 3 of the NLDS against Philadelphia.
Dodgers vs. Brewers NLCS schedule
- Monday, Oct. 13 at American Family Field
- Tuesday, Oct. 14 at American Family Field
- Thursday, Oct. 16 at Dodger Stadium
- Friday, Oct. 17 at Dodger Stadium
- Saturday, Oct. 18 at Dodger Stadium (if necessary)
- Monday, Oct. 20 at American Family Field (if necessary)
- Tuesday, Oct. 21 at American Family Field (if necessary)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Seven things to know about the Brewers' NLCS opponent, the Dodgers
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