How much of a difference can a year make?
The Milwaukee Brewers are hoping it’s enough to flip the script as they prepare for a National League Championship Series rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who swept them out of last year’s post-season en route to a World Series title.
Milwaukee hardly let the four-game defeat at the hands of the Dodgers linger, however, bouncing back to win a franchise-best 103 games this season and looking every bit the part of a team ready to exact some October revenge.
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The Brewers showcased exactly what makes them so dangerous in their NLDS victory over the San Diego Padres. Jackson Chourio kept building his impressive playoff resume, Milwaukee’s pitchers held one of baseball’s hottest offences to a .181 average and seven earned runs over four games, and the Brewers authored a pair of dramatic comeback wins against San Diego’s vaunted bullpen before snapping a 12-game playoff road losing streak in the decisive Game 4.
Safe to say they’re entering this year’s NLCS riding a little higher than they were at this time last season.
But, of course, the Dodgers stand in Milwaukee’s way — fresh off a convincing series win over the Atlanta Braves that saw L.A. slug eight homers, keeping its pursuit of a third straight championship on track.
Here’s a closer look at both squads before they renew acquaintances on Sunday night in Game 1 (8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).
No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers (103-59) vs. No. 2 Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62)
What’s working for the Brewers: If one unit stepped up for Milwaukee against San Diego, it was the bullpen. Six Brewers relievers combined to allow a single earned run in the series victory while striking out 16 batters over 19 innings, building on a regular season in which the bullpen as a whole posted the lowest ERA in the NL (3.40) and finished among the top five in batting average against, home runs surrendered and WHIP.
But if they're going to take down the Dodgers, the Brewers will need better outings from their starters, who allowed seven runs in 16 innings to the Padres. Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson delivered star-level results this season and pose a legitimate threat to Los Angeles if they bounce back.
Another thing going right for the Brewers is Chourio’s continued post-season heroics. The 22-year-old drove in six of Milwaukee’s 12 runs in the NLDS, including the winning run on his epic walk-off single against Mason Miller in Game 2’s come-from-behind win.
What’s working for the Dodgers: This version of the Dodgers is headlined by their starting rotation, which led the way again in their series win over Atlanta. Even with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow’s uneven outings against the Braves, Los Angeles’s starters pitched to a 1.69 ERA with 27 strikeouts over the four games. It further stamped Dodgers starters as the most reliable in the senior circuit after they paced NL rotations in ERA, walk rate, batting average against and WHIP during the regular season. At the forefront of it all are Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who might form the best 1-2 punch in baseball and could each pitch twice in this series after being tabbed to start Games 1 and 2.
Although it slumped to a .655 OPS against Atlanta, Los Angeles’s veteran lineup made up for some of its struggles by winning the home-run battle. Max Muncy left the yard three times, while Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker, Enrique Hernández and Teoscar Hernández added big flies of their own to give the Dodgers’ pitching staff all the run support it needed. If Los Angeles continues to get strong starts and big swings up and down its order, it will be tough to beat.
Where the Brewers are vulnerable: Milwaukee enters this series with an offence similar to the one that mustered only four runs over four games in last year’s NLCS. Both editions topped 800 runs during the regular season with a contact-heavy approach that doesn’t rely on the long ball to generate runs. But as always, the home run rules October.
So, can Milwaukee’s bats continue to produce enough offence against a pitching staff as strong as L.A.’s? It wasn’t the case in 2025, when the Brewers’ strikeout rate skyrocketed to 31.3 per cent during the sweep. The 2026 squad, however, can hang its hat on having more hitters who performed like stars. In 2025, only one Brewer regular posted an OPS over .800, compared with four in 2026 — Chourio, Jake Bauers, Andrew Vaughn and Brice Turang.
Where the Dodgers are vulnerable: Despite the homers they hit against Atlanta, the Dodgers are still searching for production from some of their most important bats to officially reach behemoth territory in these playoffs. Shohei Ohtani doesn’t seem quite at 100 per cent after battling through injuries down the stretch. Ohtani, Will Smith and Mookie Betts went a combined 6-for-43 with five walks and no extra-base hits in the NLDS. Things won’t get any easier for the Dodgers lineup against a stronger Milwaukee pitching staff that limited L.A. to 3.86 runs per game across their seven matchups this season. If the Dodgers are to return to the Fall Classic for the sixth time in 10 years, they will need their stars to be stars on the biggest stage.
It’ll all come down to: Whether the Brewers can get to the Dodgers’ pitching. This year’s NLCS seems destined to be a battle of the arms. Milwaukee and Los Angeles ranked as the two best run-prevention teams during the regular season and continued to dominate on the mound in their opening-series victories. But we’ve seen L.A. slug its way to wins, and after Milwaukee’s bats went cold in the 2025 post-season, this series is the perfect chance to show that its offence has enough juice to spoil the three-peat bid.
