Final Score: Brewers 2 Dodgers 1
Why The Brewers Won: The Brewers were able to keep the Dodgers from getting the big hit. The Brewers’ pitchers managed to get the Dodgers to ground into three double plays. Both big time starters had their issues. Jacob Misiorowski was touched up for one run on five hits while walking three. He could only go four and one-third innings, taking 94 pitches to do so. After getting off to a hot start, Tarik Skubal, who only gave up one hit and struck out six over the first three innings, was touched up for a run in the fourth and fifth innings. Skubal gave up a leadoff home run to Brice Turang in the fourth. Then he really struggled in the fifth. The Brewers scratched out a run in the inning with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a single by Luis Lara to make the score 2-1. After a ground out, Skubal gave up a single and a walk to load the bases. He got out of the inning by getting William Contreras to fly out to right field. From that point on, both bullpens took over the game. The Dodgers’ bullpen gave up just one hit and walked two. The Brewers’ bullpen gave up two hits and walked three but kept the Dodgers off the board to preserve the victory in Game One.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Dodgers had lots of traffic on the base paths in the early going but none more so than in the 2nd inning. Shohei Ohtani opened the inning with a four pitch walk and none of the pitches were close. Misiorowski missed on the first two pitches to Teoscar Hernandez. Hernandez worked the count to 3-2. He took the 7th pitch and lined it into right field for a base hit sending Ohtani to second. Max Muncy struck out on 4 pitches. Andy Pages singled to right driving in Ohtani and moving Hernandez to second. Kyle Tucker walked to load the bases. This brought up playoff legend Kike Hernandez in another key situation. He worked the count out to 2-2. He pulled a 90 MPH slider right to the shortstop for a huge inning ending double play. The Dodgers got the leadoff man on base in the next two innings but could do nothing with it. In fact, the Dodgers had only one inning the 7th when they did not have a runner on base. They had 7 hits to go along with 6 walks but could only muster the one run. They did not make the Brewers pay for giving up all of those walks. In the top of the 9th Trevor Megill walked two after two were out but was able to get Mookie Betts to fly out to deep center field to end the game. The Brewers will not be swept this year.
The Next Games: The American League Championship Series gets underway with the Rays and Guardians going at it. The Dodgers and the Brewers will be the first game starting at 5:00. It will be interesting to see how the Guardians’ pitching staff will hold up in the ALCS. World Series hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be going for the Dodgers this afternoon. The Brewers have won 3 of their 4 playoff games by one run. The other win was a tense 3-1 victory against the Padres that took a home run-robbing catch to preserve the win. If they pull this out today, their confidence should be at an all-time high. Stay tuned.
