William Contreras crushed it, smashing a homer and driving in three runs, as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4. That’s a 2-0 lead for the Brewers in the National League Championship Series, and it leaves the back-to-back defending champion Dodgers with a mountain to climb if they want to hit a third straight World Series. This series is getting WILD, and the Brewers are absolutely not backing down.
Yamamoto Pulled Early, Ohtani Still Cold
Dodgers fans had high hopes that their ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the MVP of last year’s World Series, would bring them back into the series. But talk about a gut punch: Yamamoto didn’t even complete three innings! He got yanked after throwing 75 pitches, giving up three runs on four hits. You rarely see that from a guy who pitched complete games in last year’s NLCS and World Series. Brewers manager Pat Murphy called Jake Bauers’ 12-pitch, seven-minute at-bat against Yamamoto “a turning point,” saying, “He’s one of the best pitchers in the land. It was a great at-bat. I think a turning point, I really do.” And if that wasn’t enough, Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is still struggling big time. He’s now just 3-for-20 in the playoffs, and he hasn’t hit a single home run since August. Meanwhile, the Brewers bullpen was lights out, not giving up a single hit over five crucial innings. That’s how you shut down a lineup, even one as stacked as the Dodgers.
Contreras Is Playing Like An Absolute Monster
This game was a total rollercoaster, man. Teoscar Hernandez started it off with a sacrifice fly that scored Mookie Betts for the Dodgers, but Contreras immediately answered with an RBI single in the Brewers’ first inning. The Dodgers got a bit lucky when pitcher Logan Henderson’s throwing error trying to pick off Betts at first allowed Tommy Edman to score. But then the Brewers exploded in an epic third inning. Captain Christian Yelich’s bases-loaded single scored David Hamilton and Brice Turang, and Yamamoto was out of there after throwing 36 pitches in that inning alone. The Dodgers retook the lead in the fifth thanks to another Henderson throwing error, this time on an Edman bunt, which let Kyle Tucker race home. Henderson was pulled, and Dustin May came in, but he couldn’t stop Freddie Freeman’s sacrifice fly from scoring Edman. That’s when Contreras stepped up. He tied the game 4-4 by absolutely crushing a solo home run off Kris Bubic over center field. And he wasn’t done! The Dodgers intentionally walked Turang to get to him, and Contreras took it personally. “I took it as motivation,” he admitted. “I wanted to put the ball in play. I knew it was a big run there.” He then drilled an RBI single that scored Hamilton. The Brewers took the first two-run lead of the series in the eighth with a Turang RBI single, and Turang then scored from a Bauers single to make it 7-4. What a performance!
Next up, Game Three is in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Can the Brewers keep this momentum going and push the defending champs to the brink? Meanwhile, over in the American League Championship Series, the Cleveland Guardians drew first blood, coming from behind to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3. The Guardians, who made an improbable comeback against the Chicago White Sox in their best-of-five division series, now lead the Rays 1-0. The Rays had the best regular-season record, so this is another huge upset brewing!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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