Dodgers' title defense continues with NLCS Game 1 in Milwaukee
The Los Angeles Dodgers' 2025 season has had peaks and valleys. Its valley came in July, which included a 5-13 stretch. Those dreadful few weeks included a six-game season series sweep at the hands of the then-surging Milwaukee Brewers.
Now, three months later, a best-of-seven series against the Brew Crew is all that stands between the Boys in Blue and another trip to the World Series.
The Dodgers allowed the Brewers to score 31 runs in those six regular-season contests, scoring just 4 in the first four games and 16 total. With the National League Championship Series starting Monday night in Milwaukee, LA is treating those games how it should – as a distant, irrelevant memory.
"I think we're in a much better spot, just as far as the health side, on the position player side, on the pitching side," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "We're playing better [now]."
Scouting report
The Dodgers acknowledge that they're a better team in October than they were in July, and much of that is backed up by the pitching staff. While perceived as a weakness in the second half of the season, it's been a strength in the first two rounds of the postseason.
LA held the Philadelphia Phillies' star-studded lineup to 3-or-less runs in each of its three wins in the National League Division Series. Its bullpen was aided by the move of Roki Sasake to the closer role in recent games, where he's successfully shut the door on lineups in the ninth inning of games throughout the playoffs.
With just eight more wins separating the Dodgers from a repeat World Series title, the Dodgers are going to need every part of their roster to clip against the formidable Brewers. Milwaukee will have home-field advantage in the NLCS after finishing with a 97-65 record during the regular season, besting the Dodgers, who went 93-69.
Despite posting the best record in Major League Baseball this season, Brewers manager Pat Murphy kept his team humble as they prepared to face Hollywood's team, telling reporters that his battling lineup consists of a bunch of "average Joes."
Blake Snell, who will take the bump for the Dodgers as their Game 1 starter Monday night, isn't buying it.
"I'm not falling for the 'average Joes,' they're not," Snell said in a news conference this week. "They got the best record ... They're a really good team."
While Milwaukee doesn't have Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts or Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it has a consistent lineup that's solid throughout. Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio lead the way for a team that can score in a variety of ways while playing solid defense.
What's to come
Game 1 in Milwaukee starts at 5:08 p.m. Monday, with Game 2 starting at the same time Tuesday.
Games 3, 4 and if necessary, 5, will take place in LA. Game 3's first pitch is set for 3:08 p.m. Games 4 and 5 are scheduled for more West Coast-friendly starts at 5:38 and 5:08 p.m., respectively.
