Christian Yelich and the Brewers looking to get past Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in NLCS sequel
MILWAUKEE (AP) — All along, Christian Yelich felt this was going to be part of the road for the Milwaukee Brewers.
It was always going to be the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers — with their consecutive World Series titles and a payroll that casts a long shadow over Yelich and the small-market Brewers.
“We’ve been expecting having to play them in this round since spring training, in the regular season,” Yelich said Saturday. “You kind of just know that’s what’s going to happen.”
The 2026 NL Championship Series is a sequel, with Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers taking on Jackson Chourio and the Brewers. Los Angeles swept Milwaukee in last year's NLCS on the way to the franchise's 26th NL pennant and ninth World Series championship. The Dodgers also eliminated the Brewers in the NLCS in 2018 and the wild-card round in 2020.
Game 1 on Sunday night features a pair of stingy aces. Tarik Skubal goes for Los Angeles after the two-time Cy Young Award winner was acquired in an Aug. 1 trade with Detroit, and Jacob Misiorowski — the front-runner for the NL Cy Young Award — starts for Milwaukee.
“They’re a really good ballclub,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Similar guys that we’re used to seeing, very similar to what we’re used to seeing. There’s going to be no secrets. They play a very good brand of baseball.”
The return engagement for the NLCS also shines a light on the competing arguments at the center of MLB's collective bargaining negotiations. Baseball’s five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1, and management is expected to lock out players in a confrontation that could affect the 2027 season.
The Dodgers went 100-62 this season and won the NL West for the fifth straight year after they had an opening-day payroll of $323.6 million, second only to the New York Mets. Milwaukee's opening-day payroll of $125.9 million ranked 20th, and the Brewers set a franchise record with a major league-best 103 wins on the way to their fourth consecutive Central title.
“We’re focused on trying to win, and I think we have for a while,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “Regardless of what the economics look like, the guys in there believe, and so do I.”
Milwaukee was shut down by Los Angeles in last year's playoffs, hitting .118 while managing just one run in each game in the sweep. Ohtani punctuated the series by swatting three solo homers and striking out 10 over six shutout innings in Game 4.
Ohtani won't pitch this time around because of injuries, and the Japanese slugger went 2 for 13 with four strikeouts in the four-game NL Division Series against Atlanta. But the Dodgers still have a formidable rotation, fronted by Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“Every night when you play these guys, you know you’re going to face a great pitcher, a Cy Young-caliber pitcher,” Yelich said.
Milwaukee has its own Cy Young-caliber pitcher in the 24-year-old Misiorowski, who went 16-5 with a major league-low 1.80 ERA in 30 starts this season while averaging 100.6 mph with his four-seam fastball. The 6-foot-7 right-hander also led the majors with 252 strikeouts in 174 2/3 innings.
Misiorowski was a heralded rookie during last year's NLCS run. He pitched 12 innings of three-run ball, including five effective innings in Game 3. The big difference this year, he said, is confidence.
“Going into last year’s postseason, I didn’t know if I was going to be on the roster,” said Misiorowski, who hasn't pitched since Milwaukee's NL Division Series opener against San Diego last weekend. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it and help the team. This year they trust me a little bit more. So it’s a little easier to get behind yourself.”
Misiorowski pitched six sparking innings in a 4-1 victory at Los Angeles on Aug. 15, but Dodgers slugger Max Muncy downplayed the significance of their previous experience with “a guy that throws 105” miles per hour.
“It’s very fast. Everything is coming at you very fast,” Muncy said. “It’s big-time extension, big guy on the mound, and you have to be ready to go in the box.”
Milwaukee was believed to have had interest in pairing Skubal with Misiorowski at the trade deadline, but the Tigers ended up going with the Dodgers' offer.
“Certainly when you’re talking about a seven-game series, to see Tarik on the other side would certainly — the series would look a lot different,” Roberts said.
The 29-year-old Skubal went 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 10 starts with Los Angeles down the stretch. The left-hander, eligible for free agency after the World Series, tossed six innings of one-run ball in a 5-3 win over the Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS.
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