MILWAUKEE — Billboards around town promote the Milwaukee Brewers with the slogan “Win Our Way.”
The Dodgers tried. It didn’t work.
They scored four runs without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position – or hitting a home run – in a back-and-forth game that was finally settled when the Brewers pulled away to a 7-4 victory on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The best-of-seven series now heads back to Los Angeles with the Dodgers trailing 2-0. Game 3 is Wednesday at 5 p.m. with Blake Snell scheduled to start for the Dodgers.
The pesky, opportunistic Dodgers scored a run in the first inning without a hit. Mookie Betts drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on Freddie Freeman’s slow roller then third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Teoscar Hernandez.
They scored again on a pair of singles and a wild pickoff throw by Brewers starting pitcher Logan Henderson who was more effective throwing home than he was to first base.
That came up again in the fifth inning. Kyle Tucker led off with a double and Tommy Edman tried to bunt him to third – you wanted bunts. Henderson did him one better, fielding the ball and throwing wildly to first base. Tucker scored on Henderson’s second error and Edman wound up scoring on a close play at the plate (confirmed by replay) on a sacrifice fly by Freeman.
Each of the runs either gave the Dodgers the lead or tied the game as the two teams played in a phone booth, never straying more than a run apart.
That was true, in part, because Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was not sharp. He threw 75 pitches to get just two outs into the third inning. The Brewers swung at 33 of those pitches and only missed four times.
Two key decisions by catcher Will Smith could have changed things, though.
On a 2-and-2 pitch to Brice Turang in the first inning, Yamamoto seemed to hit the outside corner with a cutter for strike three – or he didn’t. That was the call by home plate umpire Chris Segal. It might have been overturned by ABS but Smith did not challenge.
Two pitches later, Turang doubled. William Contreras drove him in with a single.
Two innings later, the Brewers had a runner at second with one out when Yamamoto again appeared to hit the outside corner with a cutter on a full count to Turang. Segal called it a ball and Yamamoto appeared to gesture towards Smith that he wanted to challenge. Smith didn’t.
Two batters later, Jake Bauers won a 13-pitch battle with Yamamoto – the longest plate appearance against Yamamoto this season – fouling off six consecutive pitches before drawing a walk to load the bases.
Two pitches later, Christian Yelich stroked a two-run single through the middle, the first base hit off of a Yamamoto curveball since August 27 and the last pitch Yamamoto would throw in the game.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to Alex Vesia to finish off the third and gave the ball to Roki Sasaki for a scoreless fourth.
But then he took it away from the converted starter after just one inning and gave it to Kris Bubic with two lefties coming up in the fifth. In between them was Contreras and he tied the game with a solo home run off Bubic.
The Brewers finally did things their way in the sixth inning against Brock Stewart.
He hit No. 9 hitter David Hamilton with a pitch. Hamilton went to second when Freeman mishandled a pickoff throw from Stewart and third on a ground out by Jackson Chourio. After an intentional walk of Turang, Contreras collected his third RBI of the game with a single to left field.
The Brewers outhit the Dodgers 12-3 in Game 2.
They did it again in the eighth against Edgardo Henriquez. Hamilton led off with a single, stole second and went to third on a ground out. Turang drove him in with an RBI single, giving the Brewers the first two-run lead for either team in this series. When Bauers drove in another run with a single, it gave the Brewers their first three-run lead this postseason.
Left to their own devices, the Dodgers couldn’t create another scoring opportunity. The final 15 batters went down in order against Brewers relievers Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby.
In winning the first two games of the NLCS, the Brewers’ bullpen has pitched 9⅔ scoreless innings.
More to come on this story.