The Milwaukee Brewers are headed to the World Series for the first time in 44 years. Milwaukee closed out a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, winning Game 4 by a score of 6-4 to claim the National League pennant and end one of the longest championship-less stretches in baseball.
The Brewers last reached the World Series in 1982, when they fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Wednesday's clincher closes that gap and sends a Milwaukee team back to the sport's biggest stage for just the second time in franchise history. Across the four games of the NLCS, the Brewers never trailed in a series the Dodgers had entered as defending champions, outplaying Los Angeles from the opening pitch of Game 1 through the final out of Game 4.
A Series Decided Early
Milwaukee's dominance was evident well before Wednesday's finish. In Game 3, the Brewers routed the Dodgers 6-2, beating ace left-hander Blake Snell and pushing Los Angeles to the brink of elimination with a game to spare. That result, detailed by ESPN's account of the sweep, left the Dodgers needing to win out just to extend the series, and they never did. Milwaukee's pitching staff and lineup combined to deny Los Angeles any real window to climb back in, a pattern that held through the series-clinching win.
The sweep also closed the book on the Dodgers' bid for a third consecutive World Series title. Los Angeles entered October as the two-time defending champion and the favorite in the National League, but the Brewers' pitching and timely hitting left little room for the kind of late-series adjustments that might have turned the matchup. By the time Game 4 ended, the series had been decided not by a single swing but by four straight games of the Brewers simply playing the better baseball.
Dodgers Tip Their Caps
The response from the Los Angeles clubhouse after Game 4 was notable for how little second-guessing it contained. Rather than pointing to a bad break or a questionable bounce, the Dodgers' players and coaches largely agreed that Milwaukee had simply been the better team for four games, a theme captured in ESPN's report on the Dodgers' reaction.
We got outplayed.
Los Angeles Dodgers, in the clubhouse after Game 4 — via ESPN
That blunt summary matched the way the series unfolded. There was no single controversial call or late-inning collapse to dissect; across four games, the Brewers out-pitched and out-hit a Dodgers roster that had been built, and had performed, like a team chasing history. Instead, Los Angeles' three-peat bid ended with a tip of the cap to a Milwaukee club that had been the better team from start to finish.
What's Next
The Brewers now wait to learn their World Series opponent, which will come out of the American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays. Cleveland took a 2-1 series lead on Thursday with a 3-2 win, powered by rookie Petey Halpin's go-ahead two-run home run, as described in ESPN's coverage of that ALCS game. That series remains open, with Tampa Bay still looking to even things up before a pennant is decided in the American League.
For Milwaukee, the wait is a chance to rest a pitching staff and lineup that played nearly flawless baseball for four straight games against the two-time defending champions. Whichever team emerges from the Guardians-Rays series will face a Brewers club that has not been to a World Series since 1982 and has every bit of momentum heading into it. A date and site for Game 1 of the World Series will follow once the American League pennant is settled.
