William Contreras homered and drove in three runs as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 to take a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series on Monday.
The Brewers’ victory, powered by a Milwaukee bullpen that did not give up a single hit over five innings, left the back-to-back defending champion Dodgers with a mountain to climb to reach a third straight World Series.
Hopes were high among Dodgers fans that starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Most Valuable Player of last year’s World Series, would get their team back on track in the best-of-seven series.
But Yamamoto, who pitched complete games in last year’s NLCS showdown with the Brewers and in the World Series, did not even complete three innings.
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He was hooked after throwing 75 pitches to Milwaukee’s obdurate offense, giving up three runs on four hits.
The Dodgers’ star batter Shohei Ohtani continued to misfire — now 3-for-20 in the playoffs, with no home run since August — but was not alone struggling against a near-perfect Milwaukee bullpen showing.
“Our mentality is to stay focused. It doesn’t matter what the game state is, if we’re ahead, if we’re behind, we’re gonna stay on the aggression and stay focused,” said Contreras.
“I think we’ve been able to do a really good job of that as a team.”
The Brewers, who led Major League Baseball with 103 regular-season wins, need two more wins to reach their second-ever World Series, 44 years after their previous appearance.
A rollercoaster game began with Teoscar Hernandez’s sacrifice fly scoring Mookie Betts, but the Brewers replied in their first inning with a Contreras RBI single.
The Dodgers capitalized on a throwing error by pitcher Logan Henderson, who tried to pick off Betts at first base. His spiked throw allowed Tommy Edman to cross home plate.
An epic Brewers third inning put Milwaukee back in front. Captain Christian Yelich’s bases-loaded single scored David Hamilton and Brice Turang.
By that time Yamamoto had thrown 36 pitches in the inning, and 12 solely in Jake Bauers’ tenacious, seven-minute at-bat. He was promptly withdrawn.
The Dodgers retook the lead in the fifth, thanks to another Henderson throwing error on a Tommy Edman bunt. Kyle Tucker, who had hit a lead-off double, raced home, and this time Henderson was withdrawn.
His replacement Dustin May could not stop a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly scoring Edman.
But again the Brewers responded immediately. Contreras tied the game 4-4 by crunching a solo home run off Kris Bubic over center field.
And the following inning it was Contreras yet again.
Remarkably brought to the plate after the Dodgers intentionally walked Turang, his RBI single scored David Hamilton, who had been hit on the foot by a pitch and then reached second on a throwing error by Brock Stewart.
Milwaukee took the first two-run lead of the series in the eighth from a Turang RBI single. Turang then scored from a Bauers single to make it 7-4.
Game three takes place in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
amz/sla