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The Milwaukee Brewers are going to the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ reign is over.
Championship Series Chatter
Brewers Rally To End Dodgers’ Reign, Go To World Series
Final score: Brewers 6, Dodgers 4
Series: Brewers win 4-0
Next game: AL champion at Brewers (RHP Jacob Misiorowski), Friday, Oct. 23, 8 p.m. ET (Fox)
“The king is dead.” Normally, the line continues, “Long live the king.” But for another two weeks, MLB’s throne is abdicated. The Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of the last two World Series and seeking to become the third franchise to win three in a row, will not make history this year. That is because the Milwaukee Brewers, MLB’s best team in the regular season, slayed Goliath. Garrett Mitchell hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning as the Brewers rallied from a 4-0 deficit to eliminate the Dodgers with a 6-4 victory, completing a four-game sweep in the NL Championship Series. The Brewers will play in their first World Series since 1982 against either the Cleveland Guardians or Tampa Bay Rays beginning next Friday at American Family Field.
The Brewers are no David to the Dodgers’ Goliath, although the payroll says otherwise. The Brewers have won the last four NL Central titles had posted the best record in MLB in each of the last two seasons. There were several heroes for the Brewers in this series. Jake Bauers was named NLCS MVP after starting the comeback with a two-run double in the fourth inning. It was also in large part due to a terrific effort by the Brewers’ bullpen. That unit had to cover all nine innings in Game 4. They did make one mistake. That happened when former Dodgers right-hander Dustin May was tagged for a slump-busting three-run homer by Shohei Ohtani, put back in the leadoff spot, to stake the Dodgers to a 4-0 lead. Surely the Brewers would crumble now that the superstar slugger was back in the swing of things.
But not this group of Brewers. They weren’t just happy to be here like last year’s team that was swept on this same stage by the Dodgers in the NLCS. These Brewers bounced back. A one-out walk by Brice Turang was followed by back-to-back ground-rule doubles, the first by William Contreras that bounced into the left-field stands, then by Bauers that bounced into the right-field stands, bringing in a pair of runs to make it 4-2. In the fifth, Sal Frelick drew a one-out walk and stole second. David Hamilton singled to center, with Frelick racing home to pull the Brewers within 4-3. That chased Dodgers right-handed starter Tyler Glasnow, with right-hander Evan Phillips coming in. Contreras walked to load the bases and Bauers worked a walk to tie the game. Mitchell would shock the Dodgers by drilling a solo homer in the sixth.
After left-hander JoJo Romero retired six of the seven batters he faced, including the three MVPs at the top of the lineup, the Brewers turned it over to left-hander Aaron Ashby. Ashby would face those same three, Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and get through unscathed, including getting Ohtani to chase a slider well out of the zone. It was the first of a surprising three innings as manager Pat Murphy rode the hot hand in the ninth instead of going to right-handed closer Trevor Megill for the save. When Ashby got Enrique Hernández to line out to Jackson Chourio in left, the Brewers were headed back to the World Series. And the king was dead.
Halpin’s Homer Gives Guardians Edge
Final score: Guardians 3, Rays 2
Series: Guardians lead 2-1
Next game: Rays (TBA) at Guardians (TBA), today, 6:08 p.m. ET (TBS)
With the first Cinderella home run of this postseason, the Cleveland Guardians have taken the upper hand in the AL Championship Series. But with how the first three games have ebbed and flowed, there is certainly more drama on the way. Petey Halpin hit a surprising go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning as the Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 3 of the ALCS. The Guardians are now up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
Halpin had a grand total of four homers in 208 regular-season plate appearances and none in 10 during the postseason entering Game 3. After Patrick Bailey singled off right-handed starter Griffin Jax to lead off the bottom of the fifth, Halpin got all of a center-cut sinker from Jax and drove it deep to right-center, flipping his bat straight up in an epic moment, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
Pitching had dominated until this moment — and did following it. Guardians ace right-hander Gavin Williams, who has shouldered a heavy load thus far in the postseason, struck out nine over five innings, allowing both runs on just two hits and a walk. Both hits and runs came in the fourth inning. With the Guardians up 1-0 on Nathaniel Lowe’s second-inning RBI double, Yandy Díaz had a leadoff double to left, then Williams struck out the next two batters. But he walked Victor Mesa Jr. on five pitches. Williams was ahead of Chandler Simpson 1-2 when the speedster turned on an inside sweeper and roped it down the right-field line and into the corner for a two-run triple to put the Rays up 2-1. The Rays would only get one more hit against the Guardians, who sent three relievers out before turning to right-handed closer Cade Smith for a four-out save. Smith set down all four batters he faced, striking out two, to give the Guardians the series lead.
By The Numbers
1 The Brewers-Dodgers NLCS was the 11th postseason best-of-seven series between two 100-win clubs, but the first to end in a sweep. The Brewers are also the only team in MLB history to be swept out of one postseason, then sweep that team in the next postseason.
4 The Brewers’ four-run comeback is tied for the largest in any LCS clincher.
1 The Brewers are the first team to trail in all four games of a series they swept.
7 Of the nine innings the Rays came up to bat, they went down in order seven times.
19 Since the beginning of the 2024 playoffs, Guardians closer Cade Smith has pitched in 19 of Cleveland’s 21 games, the most by any pitcher in MLB postseason history in a span of that length.
Best Moments From Yesterday
The Emotion
Brewers catcher William Contreras‘ reaction says it all.
Look at what it means to William Contreras 🥹
From The Podium
The Brewers got to take center stage in L.A.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
The Brewers are probably happy to no longer have to face Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, whose three-run homer had an exit velocity of 113.1 mph, his fourth-hardest hit of the season.
Give Me 10
Lengthy plate appearances are becoming a theme in this postseason. This one between Guardians closer Cade Smith and the Rays’ Yandy Díaz went to the pitcher.
Every pitch from the epic 10-pitch battle between Cade Smith and Yandy Díaz. This is the white-knuckle stuff that makes playoff baseball incredible.
— Casey Drottar (@caseydrottar.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T19:52:29.671Z
See Him Fly
Watching Rays speedster Chandler Simpson run is fun.
Chandler Simpson comes up CLUTCHA stand-up triple gives the Rays the lead 👏
Nowhere To Go
The batboy tried to avoid one Rays player while running into another. Petey Halpin of the Guardians homered on the next pitch.
Junior Caminero collided with a batboy holding a stool while trying to make a play on Petey Halpin's pop-upHalpin homered on the very next pitch to put the Guardians on top over the Rays
— Talkin' Baseball (@talkinbaseballbot.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T18:37:49.000Z
No You Know The Name
You might not have known Halpin’s name before this. You do now.
When the bat flip has a higher launch angle than the homer #NoTimeLikeOctober
Noteworthy News
⚾ As expected, 37-year-old Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas is retiring.
⚾ The Colorado Rockies fired pitching coach Alon Leichman after one season.
⚾ The Philadelphia Phillies have hired former New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza as their third base coach.
Articles You Should Read
Jake Bauers never gave up. That resulted in October glory. — Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic
This is why Kevin Cash pulled Blake Snell — Mike Baumann, FanGraphs
Phillies give Trea Turner warning about his future at shortstop — Scott Lauber, Philadelphia Inquirer
