Brewers Rally Past Dodgers 7-4, Take 2-0 Lead in NLCS
Brewers Rally Past Dodgers 7-4, Take 2-0 Lead in NLCS
MILWAUKEE — October 13, 2026 — The Milwaukee Brewers came from behind to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday at American Family Field, grabbing a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.
Catcher William Contreras was the hero, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. His 436-foot solo homer tied the game in the fifth inning, and his go-ahead RBI single in the sixth put Milwaukee ahead for good.
The Brewers' bullpen was untouchable, retiring the final 15 Dodgers batters in order — five straight hitless innings to slam the door. Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, by contrast, was pulled after lasting just 2 2/3 innings, continuing a difficult postseason for Los Angeles' pitching staff.
The loss puts the defending-champion Dodgers in a deep hole as the series shifts to Los Angeles. Milwaukee's offense, which scuffled earlier in the playoffs, has now come alive at exactly the right moment.
Game 3 is set for Wednesday, October 14, at 8:00 PM ET in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers will try to avoid falling into a 3-0 series deficit.
The historical odds are stark for the Dodgers. In best-of-seven series, teams that fall behind 2-0 win the series far less often than those that take the lead — and a 3-0 deficit has been essentially a death sentence in baseball's modern era. Los Angeles' pitching, its biggest question mark all October, is now under maximum strain: Yamamoto's early exit left the bullpen to cover the majority of Game 2, and the Dodgers will need length from their Game 3 starter to keep from burning out their relief corps.
For Milwaukee, the formula is suddenly simple: keep scoring and let the bullpen finish. Fifteen straight retired batters is the kind of lockdown relief pitching that wins championships, and Contreras' emergence as a middle-of-the-order force has transformed an offense that sputtered through the earlier rounds. Two more wins in Los Angeles would send the Brewers to the World Series without the series ever returning to Milwaukee.
What to watch Wednesday: whether the Dodgers' lineup, facing elimination from a series hole, can generate anything against a Brewers pitching staff operating at peak confidence. The defending champions came into this series as favorites — two games later, they are one more loss away from a stunning October exit.
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