Tuesday was a travel day for the Mariners and Blue Jays, who will play Game 3 of the American League Championship Series tonight. The M’s are two wins away from their first ever World Series. At the end of the day on Tuesday though, another club was halfway through the path to the pennant. And unfortunately for anyone rooting against the Dodgers, the defending World Series champions look like they’re undeterred by any challenger.
Just like the Phillies in the NLDS, the Brewers are now down 0-2 and
must win two of three out west to simply keep their season alive and see another playoff game in Milwaukee. Tough.
National League Championship Series Game 2
Dodgers 5, Brewers 1
(Los Angeles leads series 2-0)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was nothing short of masterful on Tuesday night. Much like Bryce Miller in the ALCS opener, he allowed a homer on his very first pitch (in Yamamoto’s case, to Jackson Chourio rather than George Springer) to charge up the home crowd, but didn’t cough up much else after that.
Unsurprisingly, Yamamoto’s effort was an even better one than Miller, who is a talented young arm but was also working off short rest by necessity. Yamamoto is an established, strong MLB pitcher in his second year after coming over from the NPB, and he’s been outstanding in 2025. He led the majors in H/9 at 5.9, made his first All-Star team, and struck out 201 in 173. 2 innings. He’ll probably get down-ballot Cy Young votes. And he just posted the best start of his young MLB career.
Singles by Brice Turang in the third and Sal Frelick in the fourth were the only other hits off Yamamoto after the Chourio homer. Yamamoto was just suffocating the Brewers’ offense, striking out just seven but generating a ton of soft contact, including 16 groundballs (and just one walk). The Dodgers don’t really have a bullpen, so manager Dave Roberts just had Yamamoto go back out there for the final frame. His pitch count was in good shape and he ended MLB’s first complete game since Justin Verlander in 2017 with 111 pitches.
Tip your cap; Yamamoto was incredible. The Dodgers are heavy favorites to make it back to their fifth World Series in nine years, with at least two games in LA next on the docket, beginning tomorrow. The Brewers’ offense has been punchless in the first two NLCS games, plating just a pair in 18 innings. Although Ymamoto and Blake Snell are two tough customers, the Brew Crew offense isn’t meeting the moment.
I don’t think Freddy Peralta was all that good for Milwaukee, but when your lineup is just asleep at the wheel, there is no margin for error at all. Teoscar Hernández tied the game back up with a solo shot an out into the second. The Milwaukee crowd quieted, especially when Kiké Hernández soon followed with a single and scored from first on an Andy Pages double into the right-field corner to put LA ahead, 2-1. Peralta settled in and held the Dodgers off the board for the next three frames … until Max Muncy slugged his 14th career playoff homer (another solo shot) with two down in the sixth.
Given how efficient Yamamoto looked, the 3-1 deficit in the game felt enormous. The tack-on RBI singles by Shohei Ohtani (finally showing signs of life at the plate) in the seventh and Tommy Edman in the eighth made it a bit of a snooze.
Milwaukee better hope that they wake up on the cross-country flight because as it stands right now, their season could be over by Friday night with Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani looming for LA in Games 3 and 4. That’s a brutal assignment, but it’s the bed they’ve made.
