brewers

MILWAUKEE — Sal Frelick tied the score with his first home run in three months, Cooper Pratt hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning and the Milwaukee Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead by overcoming a four-run deficit for the second time in the postseason.

Tampa Bay, which won the AL pennant by forcing opponents into mistakes, committed one error, made two other misplays that could have been charged as errors and had a runner thrown out at the plate.

Down 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for its seventh comeback win of this postseason. The Brewers also rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep.

After losing Friday’s opener 3-2, the Rays burst ahead against rookie Logan Henderson, but the Brewers started to claw back with two runs in the bottom half against Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen.

David Hamilton cut the deficit to 4-3 with a run-scoring grounder in the fourth and Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by driving a fastball over the center-field fence.

Frelick had gone 103 plate appearances without a home run since his July 11 drive off Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft and had not gone deep against a lefty pitcher since opening day against Tyler Gilbert of the Chicago White Sox. Frelick sped around the bases in 18.72 seconds, half the time of some theatrical trots this postseason.

Screaming fans at the second game of Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982 were fired up during the seventh-inning stretch, dancing to the “Beer Barrel Polka” played by Mike Schneider, an accordionist from Clinton, Wis.

Brice Turang doubled against losing pitcher Tyler Wells on the second pitch of the bottom half, advanced on Garrett Mitchell’s flyout to right and scored when Pratt, a 22-year-old who debuted in June, looped a sinker from Kevin Kelly into short right field.

Abner Uribe pitched 1⅓ hitless innings for the win.

Jonny DeLuca doubled off Aaron Ashby starting the ninth, then Victor Mesa Jr. struck out when he couldn’t check his swing. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson’s groundout advanced the runner and Yandy Díaz struck out when he couldn’t check his swing on a full-count pitch.

Ashby has three saves in the postseason while not allowing a run.

Milwaukee won its seventh straight game, becoming the fifth team to twice overcome four-run deficits for victories in a single postseason and the first since Philadelphia in 2022.

Game 3 of the matchup between teams seeking their first title is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. where the Brewers last played in 2023.

Of the 57 previous teams to take 2-0 World Series leads, 46 claimed the championship.

Tampa Bay took a 4-2 lead in the highest-scoring Series first inning since 1993’s Game 4 as teams combined for seven hits, tying the most in an opening inning.

Still, Milwaukee improved to 13-0 in games started by Henderson, dating to his 2025 debut. He followed Jacob Misiorowski in the Brewers’ rotation, the first time teammates 24 or younger started the first two games of the Series since Cincinnati’s Gary Nolan and Ross Grimsley in 1972.

Henderson started on 11 days’ rest and struggled as the Rays fouled off 13 of 35 pitches in the first. He gave up four runs — three earned — in three innings.

Given an extra day of rest, Rasmussen gave up three runs and six hits over 3⅔ innings in his shortest start since July 9.

Pratt made his fourth error of the postseason at shortstop, the Brewers’ ninth in 10 games, bouncing his throw past first baseman Jake Bauers on a leadoff grounder by Díaz. Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero followed with RBI singles, and Liam Hicks hit a two-run homer.

Jackson Chourio and Bauers started the bottom half with singles and first baseman Jonathan Aranda allowed Contreras’ one-out foul pop to bounce out of his mitt near netting in front of the seats.

With Bauers running on a full-count pitch, Contreras bounced an RBI single to the left of second baseman Richie Palacios, who had taken a step toward the base. Mitchell’s two-out single cut the deficit to 4-2.

Hamilton hit an RBI grounder in the fourth that bounced under Aranda’s legs for an error.

Chourio threw out Hicks from left for the final out of the sixth when third base coach Brady Williams waved the slow-footed catcher to try to score from second on Mesa’s single.

Blum writes for the Associated Press.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Freddy Peralta threw 5⅓ gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals.

Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.

The loss thwarted Cleveland’s chance at a World Series championship, extending its drought to 78 years.

On the 18-year anniversary of their first AL pennant in 2008, the Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the second inning on Richie Palacios’ two-run double and clinched it with closer Bryan Baker on the mound.

The Guardians wouldn’t give up and had the go-ahead run at first base in the eighth when Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to leave the bases loaded after two runs scored.

Peralta allowed one run and five hits to earn his second win in the ALCS in his third appearance. He threw six scoreless innings to win Game 2 and got two outs in relief in Game 4.

A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.

The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training complex, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal to be ready in 2029 near the NFL’s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only Milwaukee had that many home wins this year.

After sweeping the Yankees in the AL Division Series, the Rays fell behind the Guardians 0-1 and 1-2 in this series before taking three straight games.

Caminero gave Tampa Bay a cushion with his first career postseason homer in the seventh inning. The two-time All-Star sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the Rays a 5-1 lead, becoming the first player to go deep on a splitter by All-Star closer Cade Smith.

Caminero turned around before reaching first base, looked toward his dugout and pounded his chest with both arms, cupped his ear rounding second to hear more cheers, stopped before reaching the plate, pointed into the stands and crossed his arms before reaching home.

Caminero hit 42 homers in the regular season but needed 33 at-bats to get his first in October.

The Guardians answered against Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour by loading the bases on two singles and a walk with two outs. Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to force in one run and hit Angel Martínez with a pitch to force in another. Kelly entered and fanned Rocchio on three changeups.

Díaz, who guaranteed a Game 6 victory when speaking through an interpreter on Sunday, gave the Rays a four-run lead with a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.

Caminero led off Tampa Bay’s second with single off opener Shawn Armstrong, who took the loss in his second start in three games. Left-hander Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second before Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Simpson advanced to third on Jonny DeLuca’s flyout to center. After Mesa stole second, Palacios looped a double to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

Armstrong, who was the opener in Game 4, faced the first four batters, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history to start a game after pitching both of the previous two days.

DeLuca’s sacrifice fly off Joey Cantillo made it 3-0 in the third but the Rays missed an opportunity to break it open with more runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.

Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single in the sixth drove in Cleveland’s first run.

The Dodgers’ offseason began at 8:07 Thursday night. Heavily favored to win a third straight World Series, they were swept into winter by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The final score doesn’t really matter, but for the record it was 6-4 Brewers. It wasn’t really that close.

The Dodgers led in every game of the National League Championship Series. They didn’t win any of them. No team has ever done that while getting swept in a best-of-seven series. So while the Dodgers didn’t three-peat, they made history just the same.

“They were relentless with everything that they did,” Dodgers infielder Max Muncy said of the Brewers. “They just strung together good at-bat after good at-bat. That’s usually what we do.

“We didn’t do it this series and they did.”

The Dodgers’ starting rotation, the most expensive in history, gave up 16 hits and 13 runs in 18 innings for a 6.50 earned-run average. The bullpen was nearly as bad, posting a 4.50 ERA in 16 innings.

The Brewers’ relievers, on the other hand, were spectacular. Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy went to his bullpen 14 times and just twice did a reliever give up a run. All four victories against the Dodgers and all seven Brewers wins this postseason have gone to a reliever, with the bullpen posting a 1.33 ERA in 40⅔ innings.

“Pitcher after pitcher came in and executed,” Muncy said. “When one of their pitchers faltered, the next guy came in and picked up the slack.”

And each time the Dodgers took a lead, the Brewers waited no more than two innings to cut into the deficit. Milwaukee trailed 4-0 after two innings Thursday. By the top of the fifth, the score was tied. An inning later, the Brewers went ahead to stay, becoming the first team with six comeback wins in their first eight postseason games.

“They respond,” Murphy said of his players. “We’ve talked about it all year long. You have a bad week, you have a bad game, you have a bad at-bat, you bounce back.”

“I love the Dodgers. I love their players. They’ve got legendary players,” he continued. “But we came in with a group that would not be denied. They were hungry, very hungry.”

The two-time defending champion Dodgers, meanwhile, appeared to be full. They hit with runners in scoring position as often as they hit into double plays, going four for 27 and stranding 24.

“We had our opportunities. We just didn’t get the job done,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “We won two [titles]. We came up short on the third.

Milwaukee’s Garrett Mitchell, right, celebrates with Cooper Pratt after hitting the go-ahead home run in the sixth inning of a 6-4 win over the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“There’s a lot of hurt at the end of the season. Sometimes you just get beat. That’s just kind of how it goes. You have to give credit to the Brewers. They played really good baseball.”

A year ago the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the NLCS. This fall the results were reversed.

“The sadness is we just didn’t accomplish our goal,” Muncy said. “The goal every year is to be the last team standing. This year we had a chance to do something historic, and we didn’t accomplish it. And every single time you’re not the last team standing, it’s heartbreak and it’s failure and it’s not what you’re looking for.”

The Dodgers’ clubhouse was closed for more than 35 minutes after the game, partly to process that heartbreak but also to give manager Dave Roberts and veteran infielder Miguel Rojas, who announced his retirement, a chance to address the team. When the doors finally opened, nearly every player was sitting in front of his locker, most still in uniform, waiting to explain what seemed to be inexplicable.

How did the greatest team money can buy wind up so flat when the stakes were so high?

“We’ve been grinding all season long,” said right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who retired the first 10 Brewers in order, but lasted just one more inning. “No one slacked off at all. Everyone just came in and worked hard. They just played a lot better than us. They were hitting on everything. It wasn’t our year.”

“Not every time it’s gonna be us,” left fielder Teoscar Hernández added through a forced smile. “It’s not fair for us to be doing the same thing over and over every year. Teams are going to learn from their losses the same way we’re gonna learn from this one.

“So hopefully we come back next year stronger.”

Speaking of next year, no one would.

Half the players on the Dodgers 26-man NLCS roster are on expiring contracts. The core of the team — Mookie Betts, Freeman, Muncy, Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández along with pitchers Blake Snell and Glasnow — are 33 or older. The Dodgers could look very different when spring training starts — if spring training starts — in February.

“There’ll come a time when we think about next year,” Muncy said. “But that’s not right at this moment.”

The Dodgers have an extra-long winter to get through first.

The hope for a Dodgers comeback in the National League Championship Series ended with the smack of the ball hitting leather.

Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio, sprinting toward the warning track, had to leap to reel in Kiké Hernández’s line drive in the gap. But he secured the catch. And ended the Dodgers’ season.

The Dodgers’ hopes of making National League history with a three-peat died with a 6-4 loss to the Brewers on Thursday, completing Milwaukee’s four-game sweep.

“It sucked,” veteran left fielder Teoscar Hernández said. “Especially after [what] we had done the last two years. This year at the beginning of the year, what we’ve been through, a lot of injuries throughout the year the last two years, a lot of ups and downs. It just sucked that we’re in this situation, but it’s part of the game.

“Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. This time, we’re the ones that lost, and just reflect on everything that we didn’t do great this year and just try to do it next year.”

As the Dodgers’ postseason hype video declared before the game: “October doesn’t remember who came close. It remembers who triumphs.”

The Dodgers, after reinforcing to their back-to-back championship roster in the offseason and entering the year as the World Series favorites, fell short. And instead the Brewers will represent the National League, making their first trip to the Fall Classic in 44 years.

“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said from the stage. “And the gamers won this week.”

When the Dodgers went down 3-0 in the series, they faced a steep climb that only one team in MLB history has overcome. But the Dodgers showed resolve to begin the game.

Three singles in the second inning gave the Dodgers a lead, with Andy Pages driving in the first run. It was his third hit of the postseason with runners in scoring position and the Dodgers’ fourth overall. Then with two outs, Ohtani not only prolonged the inning but also made it the Dodgers’ highest-scoring frame of the postseason, with their first home run of the series.

It had been a maddening couple of months as Ohtani battled injuries, slid down the batting order and failed to produce when the Dodgers needed him most — in the postseason.

Then on Thursday, with the Dodgers on the brink of elimination, one swing momentarily wiped all that away.

Ohtani got his bat head down to a cutter from former Dodgers pitcher Dustin May on the inside corner. He lifted it into the stands for a three-run home run.

Ohtani turned to the Dodgers’ dugout, spread his arms wide and tossed his bat to the side. He tilted his face to the sky and yelled. He punched the air.

This was the version of Ohtani the Dodgers had sorely been missing. He announced his return with authority. And he breathed life into a stadium that had a crowd of only 49,104 — short of a sellout.

It was his first home run since Aug. 18. And it had been even longer since he’d hit a homer quite like that. With an exit velocity of 113.1 mph, it was his hardest-hit home run since June 20 and his third-hardest hit of the year, according to Statcast.

Even more important, it was the big swing the Dodgers had been waiting for all series.

“It was something that you don’t see very often from Shohei,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think it was a lot of pent-up anger, frustration. It was the best ball he hit in probably two, three months, and it was a big hit. So I think that for him to look at the dugout, show that emotion, it just shows how much he cares. He’s still human. He still cares and wants to help his team win a baseball game. That was a big hit.”

Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow kept the good vibes going, retiring the first 10 batters he faced. But the Brewers, as they had all series, had a comeback in them.

“We got a nice lead, we got Glas on the mound, we’re confident behind him,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And they just kept stringing together one good at-bat after another after another after another. They were just kind of relentless.”

It began with one out in the fourth inning, as Brice Turang drew a walk, the first baserunner against Glasnow. Then William Contreras and Jake Bauers each bounced ground-rule doubles into the stands, Bauers’ driving in two runs to cut the Dodgers’ lead in half.

Shohei Ohtani strikes out with a runner on third during the seventh inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The next inning, the Brewers used a walk, stolen base and David Hamilton’s RBI single to trim the Dodgers’ lead to one and knock Glasnow out of the game.

Right hander Evan Phillips replaced him and loaded the bases the rest of the way, before left-hander Alex Vesia entered to face Bauers, who had been a nightmare for the Dodgers this series.

Vesia walked Bauers on four pitches, tying the score at 4-4.

The Dodgers had lost their momentum, but they still had time.

Then, in the sixth, Dodgers setup man Tanner Scott took the mound early, at an inflection point in the contest. He worked ahead 0-and-2 in the count to Garrett Mitchell. But Mitchell spat on three straight balls to get to a full count.

Scott missed down the middle with a fastball. Mitchell sent it over the fence to give the Brewers the lead for the first time.

Even down by a run, Roberts continued to manage like he had hope, bringing in Edwin Díaz in the seventh to keep the game close.

The Dodgers’ offense got runners to third in three straight innings. In the sixth, Kyle Tucker hit a one-out double, and Teoscar Hernández moved him over with a groundout. In the seventh, Pages led off with a double, and Kiké Hernández bunted him over. In the eighth, with one out, Will Smith cut out the middle man by doubling into the right-field corner and advancing to third when Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick misplayed the carom off the wall.

The Dodgers stranded all three at third, failing to score the tying run.

“They just outplayed us this series,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “That’s just kind of how it goes. We had our opportunities. We just didn’t get it done.”

Díaz did his part to keep the Dodgers in the game, retiring eight straight batters. But the ninth batter he faced, Hamilton, hit a solo homer to add cushion to the Brewers’ lead.

“I wouldn’t want to go through this with any other group of guys,” Muncy said. “We really tried to do something special in this clubhouse, and I know next year we’ll be ready to get right back to it. But right now, this sucks.”

It wasn’t a baseball game, it was a sucker punch.

Ouch! Ooof! What?

Who are these Milwaukee Brewers?

What happened to that docile small-town bunch that was once embarrassingly soft? What happened to the team with great stats but none of the swagger, a team that the Dodgers swept last October in a playoff series that wasn’t that close?

The Dodgers entered the National League Championship Series at Milwaukee’s American Family Field on Sunday knowing the Brewers had the best record in baseball, the best batting average in baseball, the best bullpen in baseball, and still…

They had to be convinced this wasn’t the same Brewer team that had famously rolled over one short year ago.

Well, um… duck!

In a first round that portended a lengthy and bloody fight, the Dodgers clutched to a 1-0 lead after three innings with ace Tarik Skubal on the mound and Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski headed for the showers.

Then they lost it.

They lost to a rare Brewer home run. They lost to a trademark Brewer bunt. They lost to four stifling Brewer relievers.

In the end, they lost the series opener 2-1 to a relentless Brewer effort filled with all the muscle and hustle of their football-toting neighbors up in Green Bay.

This time, when they were knocked down, the Brewers didn’t stay down.

This time, the Brewers swung back and swung harder and eventually landed a stunning blow deep into the Dodgers’ psyche.

This time, it’s clearly going to be different.

This time they tied the game in the fourth inning on a Brice Turang home run, then took the lead an inning later on a perfect example of the manufactured attack that is pure Brewerball.

Garrett Mitchell walked, rookie Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt and light-hitting Luis Lara banged the next pitch up the middle to score Mitchell from second for the 2-1 lead.

From there, the league’s best bullpen held the Dodgers to two singles in the last four innings, with the Dodgers stranding two runners on base in two of them. On a night they ended three innings with double plays and have still not focused their postseason hitting efforts, the final inning epitomized the frustration.

With two outs against closer Trevor Megill, Kyle Tucker drew a seven-pitch walk and kid pinch-hitter Josue De Paula drew a walk, and the sort of heroics the Dodgers have displayed for the previous two postseasons were all set up for Mookie Betts.

And he promptly lofted the second pitch to center fielder Mitchell, who made the catch and screamed and flexed with the sort of hearty celebration that usually comes from the Dodgers.

A different day indeed.

Last season in the NLCS, the Dodgers won the opener by this exact same score and the series was never really close. Don’t expect the Brewers to follow the same path, but also don’t expect this to be easy.

Milwaukee’s Brice Turang celebrates with third base coach Matt Erickson after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers should get the equalizer in this best-of-seven series Monday afternoon with October superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing relatively untested Logan Henderson.

But who knows? If the Brewers are going to act like this for a week, the Dodgers could be in big trouble.

The two-time defending champs aren’t panicking. But they’re not happy either. And if you listen closely, perhaps you can pick up a scent of worry.

“Yeah, you can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to.”

And the Dodgers, particularly one man in the middle of their order and behind the plate, failed to do the same.

Will Smith grounded into a double play and went hitless in three at-bats and is now one for 19 in the postseason.

“Yeah, he’s not swinging the bat well,” said Roberts, who remains hopeful. “He just has that knack to get a hit, a big hit.”

More of a lost cause is Shohei Ohtani, who banged out a single in three at-bats and is three for 16 in the postseason.

The Brewers seem better able to handle slumps from their stars because they’re all about the business of creating runs from what unselfish soul finds himself in the spotlight.

When asked about the key to this culture, Turang said, “I think the buy-in factor with everyone buying into what we’re trying to accomplish and kind of our style of play. Then not only that, like guys are getting more experience, they’re learning the game — even for me, still learning, getting experience. That’s a big factor in this.”

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski celebrates after striking out Kyle Tucker in the fourth inning Sunday in Game 1 of the NLCS.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Spoken like a guy who believes his team is on the verge of taking the next step. Turang said the key is what happens when they are faced with adversity — like Sunday night.

“Then not giving up when we are behind in the game and knowing that we can do it, we can make up runs,” he said. “This group is really, really good with that.”

As for the Dodgers, they know they’re really, really good at just about everything. But they know that time could be quickly running out on their chance to once again show it.

“We’ve just got to reset,” Roberts said. “We’ve got our guy going tomorrow, who we trust undoubtedly, and we’ve got to win a baseball game.”

This October, against this newly rumpled and roughneck version of the Milwaukee Brewers, that’s apparently going to be easier said than done.

If the Brewers are going to take down the heavily favored Dodgers, their group of Southland products will be key in the National League Championship Series that begins Sunday in Milwaukee.

Former Westlake star Christian Yelich is Mr. Brewer. He’s a three-time All-Star and the National League MVP in 2018. He’s always been willing to come back to the community and make contributions.

First baseman Jake Bauers is a Marina High graduate who lost in the Southern Section Division 1 championship game at Dodger Stadium to Jack Flaherty and Harvard-Westlake 1-0. Here’s a look at Bauers this season.

Former Marina first baseman Jake Bauers has 21 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Here’s a story from 2013 when Bauers was showing off his hitting prowess.

Closer Trevor Megill also played at Marina. Pitcher JoJo Romero went to Oxnard High.

Second baseman Brice Turang was a star at Corona Santiago. In 2015, he started his freshman season eight for 12 at the plate.

Center fielder Garrett Mitchell, who went to Orange Lutheran and UCLA, has overcome Type 1 diabetes while needing an insulin pump. Here’s a story from 2019 when he was playing for UCLA.

Infielder Joey Ortiz was a standout at Garden Grove Pacifica.

It all makes for an interesting homecoming when the Brewers come to Dodger Stadium next week.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

A growing scrum of reporters around Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, in the locker room Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves to advance to the National League Championship Series, didn’t put a damper on the celebration.

Tanner Scott stuck upside-down beers in Friedman’s shirt. Alex Freeland dumped beer into his mouth and all over his face. Eric Lauer coordinated a sneak attack, announcing that he was heading to the showers before reappearing from a side entrance.

Friedman never stopped grinning. But it almost looked like he had an extra glint in his eye when asked whether he’d rather take on the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres in the NLCS.

“I just want chaos,” Friedman said.

Later that night, the Brewers advanced, locking in an NLCS rematch that could certainly deliver chaos.

The Dodgers and Brewers are meeting in the playoffs for the fourth time in nine years. Last season, the Dodgers swept Milwaukee in the NLCS.

Usually before playing a big-market team like the Dodgers, Brewers manager Pat Murphy leans into the underdog narrative by saying he suspects the opponent can’t name many of the Brewers players. But by becoming perennial playoff contenders, and posting the best record in the majors over the past two seasons, the Brewers have given up whatever anonymity they may have had when they promoted Murphy a few years ago.

The cast of characters on both sides has remained relatively consistent since last October. But even after trading away top pitcher Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee is a more complete team than last season.

But losing talented players hasn’t stopped the Brewers from winning the last four NL Central titles. They keep saying goodbye to top players — including Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, closer Devin Williams and shortstop Willy Adames — then raise their win total.

Many of the players remain the same, although the Brewers added former Dodgers starting pitcher Dustin May and reliever JoJo Romero in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals at the deadline, after losing in the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes. Several players also took important steps forward.

The biggest difference-maker has been Jacob Misiorowski, who had the lowest ERA (1.80) in the majors this season and is the NL Cy Young favorite. As a rookie last year, the flame-thrower was relegated to the postseason bullpen until the NLCS. This year, he was the Brewers’ Game 1 starter in the NLDS against the Padres.

The Brewers have long hung their hat on playing sound baseball, from pitching and defense to baserunning. But the knock on them has been the lack of thump in their lineup.

First baseman Jake Bauers had a career season, leading the team in home runs (26), on-base percentage (.389) and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.873). Jackson Chourio, who was hobbled by a hamstring injury in the last NLCS, hit a career-high 25 home runs and led the team in slugging percentage (.487). And though the Brewers likely won’t out-slug the Dodgers — they hit 50 fewer home runs during the season — they have a pesky roster that stole 90 more bases.

The Brewers also had a better regular-season record (103-59) than the Dodgers (100-62), so the series will begin in Milwaukee on Sunday.

Signs point to a more competitive series than last year. The Brewers even entered the postseason with the better World Series odds (18.5%) than the Dodgers (16.7%), according to Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA standings.

The Dodgers certainly won’t take the matchup lightly. They made sure not to underestimate the No. 3 seed Braves.

“The mistake that the outside perspective kind of gets sometimes is to underestimate certain teams,” said Kiké Hernández as the Dodgers celebrated their NLDS victory. “And we knew we had a tough task ahead of us. [The Braves are] a team that was playing really good baseball, had a lot of momentum, and they were throwing the ball really well. They had a really good bullpen, a lot of different kinds of arms, and, fortunately for us, they were a little bit short on starting pitching, so they had to tax their bullpen to a point where it paid off for us.”

The Dodgers ended the series before it returned to Los Angeles for an if-necessary Game 5. So they got to turn their attention to the Brewers a couple days early.

“I think the strength of our team is our rotation,” Friedman said. “And so even if we weren’t able to reset it, we still feel like it would be a strength of ours. But to be able to line it up the way we want to, certainly advantageous. To be able to have a few days off our feet and rest up for Sunday, also really helpful.”

Then the chaos begins.

Murphy is a baseball lifer who paid more dues than a union plumber before finally pulling on a big-league uniform for the first time when he was 56. Murphy pitched in the low minors for two organizations and for two independent teams before retiring to become a college coach at Maryville, Claremont-Mudd, Notre Dame and Arizona State. He also managed the Dutch national team to a European championship and a spot in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

His big break came in 2015, when the Padres promoted him from their triple A team in El Paso to take over for Bud Black as interim manager. A year later Craig Counsell hired him as bench coach for the Brewers, and when Counsell took the Cubs’ managerial job ahead of the 2024 season, Murphy, now 67, was named his replacement.

Two-hundred and 93 regular-season wins and three playoff trips later, the baseball lifer is four wins away from the World Series, which would be the trip of a lifetime.

“I think it was just the relentless pursuit of something,” Murphy told Yahoo Sports of his long journey. “I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to be special.”

Garrett Mitchell tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning before making a pivotal catch on Manny Machado’s drive to the wall in the eighth, and the Milwaukee Brewers advanced to the National League Championship Series for the second straight season with a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, winning their best-of-five Division Series in four games.

Mitchell also drove in Sal Frelick with Milwaukee’s first run as the Brewers ended their 12-game postseason road losing streak and reached the team’s fifth League Championship Series.

Machado nearly tied Game 4 with a 406-foot drive off reliever Abner Uribe, but Mitchell coolly tracked it down and reached just above the short wall in right-center to keep it in the yard.

Second baseman Brice Turang then ended the eighth with an acrobatic catch of Ty France’s tailing popup in foul ground.

After fending off the surging Padres in four tight games decided by a combined five runs, the 103-win Brewers will get an NLCS rematch with the Dodgers, who eliminated Atlanta on Wednesday.

The Dodgers swept Milwaukee last October on the way to their second consecutive World Series title.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a 429-foot homer on an otherwise tepid offensive night for the Padres, who repeatedly tested the majors’ best regular-season team before falling short of only the fourth NLCS appearance in team history.

One night after the Padres avoided elimination in Game 3, Milwaukee claimed its first road playoff win since the 2018 NLCS by sticking to its season-long formula for success.

While four Brewers pitchers combined on a three-hitter and the defense made nearly every big play, Milwaukee’s lineup calmly worked counts, pounded 10 hits through the Padres’ defense and manufactured enough runs to head home smiling.

Game 2 hero Jackson Chourio capped his high-impact series by driving in Mitchell to become the Brewers’ career leader in postseason RBIs at just 22 years old. Chourio has 17 RBIs, including six in this series, in 16 playoff games.

Milwaukee opened the scoring in the third when Frelick reached on an infield single, stole second and came around on a single by Mitchell, an Orange County native and UCLA product.

Brewers starter and former Padres draft pick Robert Gasser threw four innings of three-hit ball, but Tatis ended his 1-for-19 skid since San Diego’s playoff opener with a long shot to center in the third. It was the longest homer ever hit in the postseason at Petco Park by a San Diego player.

Padres starter Walker Buehler yielded just three hits and a run, but manager Craig Stammen replaced him with Game 1 starter Robbie Ray after William Contreras’ leadoff single in the fourth.

Mitchell then stroked a mild liner perfectly over first base and into the right-field corner leading off the fifth, and he scored on Chourio’s single through the drawn-in infield. Chourio surpassed Ryan Braun for the most postseason RBIs in Brewers history.

Jake Bauers singled leading off the sixth and went to third on Cooper Pratt’s ground-rule double before scoring on Frelick’s sacrifice fly.

The Padres were already down 3-1 in the seventh when Mason Miller allowed three baserunners, but no runs. The vaunted closer missed Game 3 for the birth of his first child.

After sitting below .500 and in 11th place in the NL in late July, San Diego roared into the first wild-card spot and then swept the Cubs in the wild-card series last week. The Padres had won 19 of 22 before losing three of four to Milwaukee.