LOS ANGELES — The Milwaukee Brewers can’t tell you much about their 1982 ancestors, with no current player alive the last time the club went to the World Series, but Thursday evening, they just carved out their own legacy.
The Brewers, the team that resides in the smallest market in baseball, who can’t afford to keep their stars, who changed leagues since they last won the pennant, who have never won a World Series title, just claimed the National League pennant and a trip to the World Series.
The Brewers shocked the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers by completing a four-game sweep, winning 6-4, in front of a paid non-sellout crowd of 49,104 at Dodger Stadium.
Go crazy, Milwaukee! Go crazy!
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“I don't know much about baseball history," Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said, “but now that I'm a part of it, learning the history of and how much it would mean to the city… yeah, it would mean a lot.
“They've gone through the bads and the goods, and they've stuck with us. And they're really good fans. They show up to every game. They're passionate about baseball. Any sport in Milwaukee or Wisconsin."
“We love them just as much as they love us. It's been fun to be able to play a part with them in the stands."
Mark Attanasio, owner of the Brewers, plans to present the National League Championship Series trophy to former commissioner Bud Selig, who brought the franchise to Milwaukee in 1970, and owned it until selling it to Attanasio in 2005.
“He deserves this," Attanasio said. “He has meant everything to Milwaukee and this franchise.’’
It was no fluke that the Brewers swept the Dodgers, who were swept for only the second time in franchise history. They simply beat them in every phase of the game.
The Brewers out-hit them, hit with more power, pitched better, ran better, played better defense, and obviously outscored them.
The Dodgers were in every game, but every time they managed a lead, the Brewers came fighting back, just like this night.
The Dodgers, who have been looking for a clutch hit the entire postseason, batting .116 with runners in scoring position, finally appeared to find their magic moment in the second inning when Shohei Ohtani stepped to the plate with two outs and two runners on base.
He looked terrible in his first at-bat against lefty Shane Drohan, striking out on five pitches, badly swinging and missing on a slider and losing his helmet in the process.
This time, facing former teammate Dustin May, he swung at May’s 95.1-mph cutter, and sent it halfway up the right-field pavilion 428 feet away, with a vicious swing clocked at 113-mph.
Ohtani stood at the plate, admired it, flung his bat high into the air, and screamed. He danced around the bases, stomped on home plate, skipped into the dugout, and slapped hands so hard that his hands stung.
Just like that, the baseball world was subtly reminded that Ohtani, who was mired in the deepest slumps in his career, still is the greatest player in the game.
And perhaps no one needed that reminder more than Ohtani.
Ohtani, who had not homered since Aug. 18, and hit .156 with only three extra-base hits after the homer, spent the past several days working on his swing deep into the night, with a debate raging whether he should still be playing with his nagging knee and biceps injuries.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts dropped him from leadoff to second, to fourth, to fifth, to sixth in the lineup. He even had a heart-to-heart conversation with Ohtani on Tuesday to see if he was healthy enough to contribute with his nagging injuries.
He convinced Roberts he’d be fine, and was close to finding his stroke, staying in the hitting cages until 9 p.m.
Ohtani, hitting sixth in the lineup in their Game 3 loss, looked like the Ohtani of old, reaching base three times with a 113-mph single off his bat.
Roberts rewarded him by putting him back as the leadoff hitter, believing if they’re going to go down, he wanted to go down with the lineup that brought them here, moving struggling catcher Will Smith back to the cleanup spot, too.
It worked, but it proved to be the Dodgers’ highlight of the series, as they watched the Brewers come storming back with two runs apiece in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game, with left-handed hitting Garrett Mitchell hitting the go-ahead homer with a leadoff homer in the sixth.
Mitchell, who had hit two homers all season off left-handed pitchers, suddenly hit two homers off lefties in 24 hours.
“You got to give credit where credit’s due,’’ Dodgers veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “You've got a platinum Gold Glover [Brice Turang] at second base. Joey Ortiz is great at third. Cooper Pratt has been playing amazing as a rookie. They played great baseball.’’
Now, the question is whether this is the end of the Dodgers’ dynasty, reaching the postseason 14 consecutive years, winning five pennants, and three World Series titles since 2020.
“We do know we have an older team," Freeman, 37, said. “That doesn't mean we're old and we're playing bad because we're old. But that's people's opinions. I can't change your opinion because we are in this game a little bit older than everybody else.’’
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers end agonizing World Series drought, halt Dodgers dynasty with NLCS sweep
