One game into the National League Championship Series, and the Brewers have already demonstrated that they’re not the same team they were a year ago. After getting swept by the eventual champion Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, the Brewers took Game 1 of the rematch on Sunday by beating Tarik Skubal, the ace who got away at the trade deadline. Here are my takeaways: It was billed as one of the all-time great postseason pitching matchups: The National League Cy Young favorite and hardest-throwing starter the sport has ever seen, Jacob Misiorowski, against the defending two-time American League Cy Young Award winner and ace who slipped out of Milwaukee’s grasp at the deadline, Tarik Skubal.
Only, it didn’t play out that way. By the sixth inning, both stars were out of the game. The first three innings went exactly to script for the Dodgers, who hoped to work Jacob Misiorowski the same way the Padres did last series.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, Misiorowski needed 88 pitches to get through four innings. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he needed 94 pitches to get through 4 1/3. "It's more a little bit conceding the slug, hitting the ball out front, to then seeing the ball a little bit longer to spoil pitches, to shoot the ball the other way," Dave Roberts said before the game.
"That's how you've got to beat this guy. To think you're going to catch him out front and pull it in the air is bananas." The second inning epitomized the approach of the Dodgers, who worked counts, fouled off pitches and generally repeated the formula that helped them beat Chris Sale in their previous series. Shohei Ohtani, whose issues chasing played a part in him going 2-for-13 in the NLDS, began the frame with a walk.
Teoscar Hernández followed with a single. After a Max Muncy strikeout, Andy Pages continued his October turnaround with an RBI single to start the scoring. That was followed by a 10-pitch walk from Kyle Tucker.
Misiorowski threw 35 pitches in the second inning alone, ensuring he would not be long for the night. Meanwhile, Skubal was cruising. He needed only 40 pitches to get through three innings, at which point he had amassed six strikeouts and allowed just one hit.
But the Dodgers failed to build a cushion, again struggling to bring runners home after going 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in the NLDS. And with one big swing in the fourth from Brice Turang, who broke out of a 2-for-17 funk to start the postseason, the game was tied. An inning later, the Brewers plated the go-ahead run in a 26-pitch fifth inning for Skubal.
That would be it for Skubal, who threw 81 pitches in the shortest outing — both by innings and pitches — of his postseason career. There was a world in which Skubal and Misiorowski would have both been pitching on the same rotation rather than facing off this October. The Brewers were among the finalists for Skubal at the deadline and were understandably criticized for not pushing their chips in and parting with the young pieces necessary to land the deadline prize.
"I am very happy it's Skubal vs. Miz," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before Game 1, "and not Miz and Skubal in the next two." On Sunday, though, some of the young pieces they refused to deal were the reason they beat the ace that got away. Cooper Pratt, who got an eight-year extension in April, started multiple double plays defensively at shortstop on Sunday and moved over the eventual winning run with a sacrifice in the fifth.
That run scored because of 21-year-old Luis Lara, who followed with an RBI single up the middle off Skubal. It was just the second start and first hit this postseason for Lara, a rookie who received a seven-year extension in June. "Lara played one game last week, but now he’s getting another chance, so he’s feeling like, ‘They believe in me and I have a place here,’" Brewers manager Pat Murphy explained before the game.
The toughest part about having the oldest team in baseball this year, according to manager Dave Roberts, was finding time to get some of his regulars rest during the regular season. "Once you get through the marathon and you get to the sprint of the postseason, advantage goes to us in the sense of the experience," Roberts said. That may be true, but another aspect is a lack of team speed.
The Dodgers grounded into more double plays this year than any team in the National League. And in Game 1, against one of the best defensive teams in baseball, the issue reappeared and prevented them from breaking the game open against Misiorowski. In the first, Freddie Freeman singled before a Will Smith double-play grounder ended the threat.
An inning later, Misiorowski’s 35-pitch frame could have been far more problematic, but Kiké Hernández grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. Then, after the Dodgers knocked Misiorowski out of the game in the fifth, Murphy turned to lefty D.L. Hall to face the left-handed Freeman with one on and one out.
Freeman grounded into the Dodgers’ third inning-ending double play in the first five innings, and Misiorowski erupted with joy from the dugout. The Dodgers finished 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. 3 1/2.
What's Next? This win felt vital for the Brewers, considering who they’ll be facing next. In Game 2, the Dodgers will send World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound coming off a playoff career-high 10-strikeout win in the NLDS.
The Brewers, meanwhile, will turn to Logan Henderson, one of their many talented young pieces they refused to deal at the deadline.
