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One game into the National League Championship Series, and the Brewers have already demonstrated that they’re not the same team they were a year ago.
After getting swept by the eventual champion Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, the Brewers took Game 1 of the rematch on Sunday by beating Tarik Skubal, the ace who got away at the trade deadline.
Here are my takeaways:
1. 
A Different Type Of Duel
It was billed as one of the all-time great postseason pitching matchups: The National League Cy Young favorite and hardest-throwing starter the sport has ever seen, Jacob Misiorowski, against Skubal, the defending two-time American League Cy Young Award winner and ace who slipped out of Milwaukee’s grasp at the deadline.
Only, it didn’t play out that way. By the sixth inning, both stars were out of the game.
The first three innings went exactly to script for the Dodgers, who hoped to work Jacob Misiorowski the same way the Padres did last series.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, Misiorowski needed 88 pitches to get through four innings. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he needed 94 pitches to get through 4 1/3.
“It’s more a little bit conceding the slug, hitting the ball out front, to then seeing the ball a little bit longer to spoil pitches, to shoot the ball the other way,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “That’s how you’ve got to beat this guy. To think you’re going to catch him out front and pull it in the air is bananas.”
Jacob Misiorowski only lasted 4 1/3 innings, but he escaped jams and allowed just one run. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) –>
The second inning epitomized the approach of the Dodgers, who worked counts, fouled off pitches and generally repeated the formula that helped them beat Chris Sale in their previous series.
Shohei Ohtani, whose issues chasing played a part in him going 2-for-13 in the NLDS, began the frame with a walk. Teoscar Hernández followed with a single. After a Max Muncy strikeout, Andy Pages continued his October turnaround with an RBI single to start the scoring. That was followed by a 10-pitch walk from Kyle Tucker.
“You can’t go in a game with a game plan and plan to strike out 17,” Misiorowski said. “You’ve got to just do what they give you and roll with the punches.
Misiorowski threw 35 pitches in the second inning alone, ensuring he would not be long for the night. Meanwhile, Skubal was cruising. He needed only 40 pitches to get through three innings, at which point he had amassed six strikeouts and allowed just one hit.
But the Dodgers failed to build a cushion, again struggling to bring runners home after going 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in the NLDS. And with one big swing in the fourth from Brice Turang, who broke out of a 2-for-17 funk to start the postseason, the game was tied. An inning later, the Brewers plated the go-ahead run in a 26-pitch fifth inning for Skubal.
That would be it for Skubal, who threw 81 pitches in the shortest outing — both by innings and pitches — of his postseason career.
Tarik Skubal dominated for three innings, but he allowed one run in both the fourth and fifth. (Aaron Gash/MLB Photos via Getty Images) –>
2.
There was a world in which Skubal and Misiorowski would have both been pitching in the same rotation this October rather than facing off against each other.
The Brewers were among the finalists for Skubal at the deadline and were understandably criticized for not pushing their chips in and parting with the young pieces necessary to land the deadline prize.
“I am very happy it’s Skubal vs. Miz,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before Game 1, “and not Miz and Skubal in the next two.”
On Sunday, though, some of the young pieces the Brewers refused to deal were the reason they beat the ace that got away.
Cooper Pratt, who got an eight-year extension in April, started multiple double plays defensively at shortstop on Sunday and moved over the eventual winning run with a sacrifice in the fifth. That run scored because of 21-year-old Luis Lara, who followed with an RBI single up the middle off Skubal.
“He’s very committed to not letting his teammates down, and I think that’s what makes the guy special,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Both him and Pratt are up here not knowing they were going to be in the big leagues, and they both are very conscientious about getting it done the right way.”
It was just the second start and first hit this postseason for Lara, a rookie who received a seven-year extension in June.
“Lara played one game last week, but now he’s getting another chance, so he’s feeling like, ‘They believe in me and I have a place here,’” Murphy said before the game.
The Brewers, who won their first two games of the NLDS despite trailing early in both, continue to prove they’re never out of it. Including the postseason, they have a winning record this year in games in which the opponent scores first.
Cooper Pratt moved Garrett Mitchell to second base in the fourth inning, and Mitchell scored when the next batter, Luis Lara, singled him home. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) –>
3.
The toughest part about having the oldest team in baseball this year, according to manager Dave Roberts, was finding time to get some of his regulars extra rest during the regular season.
“Once you get through the marathon, and you get to the sprint of the postseason, advantage goes to us in the sense of the experience,” Roberts said.
That may be true, but another effect of their age is a lack of team speed. The Dodgers grounded into more double plays this year than any team in the National League.
The Brewers turned three double plays for starter Jacob Misiorowski. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) –>
And in Game 1, against one of the best defensive teams in baseball, the issue reappeared and prevented them from breaking the game open against Misiorowski.
In the first, Freddie Freeman singled before a Will Smith double-play grounder ended the threat. An inning later, Misiorowski’s 35-pitch frame could have been far more problematic, but Kiké Hernández grounded into a double play with the bases loaded.
Then, after the Dodgers knocked Misiorowski out of the game in the fifth, Murphy turned to lefty D.L. Hall to get a lefty-lefty matchup against Freeman with one on and one out. Freeman grounded into the Dodgers’ third inning-ending double play in the first five innings, and Misiorowski erupted with joy from the dugout.
The Dodgers finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. Four Brewers relievers combined to hold the Dodgers scoreless for the final 4 ⅔.
“I think the approach, how we went about it, was fantastic,” Roberts said. “We saw their four leverage guys tonight, and we just couldn’t muster anything.”
3 1/2. What’s Next?
This win felt vital for the Brewers, considering who they’ll be facing next.
In Game 2, the Dodgers will send World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound coming off a playoff career-high 10-strikeout win in the NLDS.
The Brewers, meanwhile, will turn to Logan Henderson, another one of their many talented young pieces they refused to trade at the deadline.
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