3 winners and 3 losers from Brewers' first two wins in NLCS rematch with Dodgers

The Milwaukee Brewers are heading to Los Angeles for Game 3 of the NLCS with a 2-0 series lead. A year after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, the Brewers have already proved that this year's team is different, but just how different they are has yet to be determined. In the face of doubters and the Dodgers' record-breaking payroll, Pat Murphy's squad remains locked in on winning ballgames, and that's just what they did in Games 1 and 2 of their NLCS rematch with the Dodgers.

The two victories were very different. The Brewers won Game 1 by a score of 2-1 in large part due to stellar defense, which resulted in three double-plays, and taking advantage of the rare mistake made by Tarik Skubal and the Dodgers' bullpen. Game 2, however, saw the Brewers overcome a pair of fielding errors from starting pitcher Logan Henderson by racking up seven runs against Yoshinobu Yamamoto and seven different Dodgers relievers.

It's an encouraging sign for Pat Murphy's roster that they were able to win two games in very different fashions. It's a reminder that the Brewers' path to a World Series title is not as narrow as some have been led to believe. Additionally, given the differing ways in which the Brewers defeated the Dodgers in the first two games of the NLCS, there were plenty of winners and losers on a micro scale. Let's take a look at three of each before the series heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday night.

3 winners from Games 1 and 2 of Brewers-Dodgers NLCS rematch

1. Aaron Ashby and the Brewers' bullpen

Heading into the postseason, the overlooked strength of the Brewers' roster was their bullpen. However, Milwaukee's relief corps quickly made known just how dominant of a force they are during the team's NLDS victory over the San Diego Padres. That success has carried over to the first two games of the NLCS.

Over the course of the Brewers' first six games of the 2026 postseason, the bullpen has covered 28.2 innings and allowed just one earned run. The group has yet to allow a run in 9.2 innings of relief during the NLCS, while surrendering just two total hits to Los Angeles' lineup of All-Stars. While the bullpen as a whole absolutely deserves recognition for the impact they've had on Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS, one Brewers reliever stands out among the rest, Aaron Ashby.

Ashby covered the seventh and eighth innings in Game 1, and allowed just one baserunner -- a one-out walk to Will Smith in the penultimate frame. The oft-used southpaw threw 26 pitches and led those not familiar with his abilities to believe he was unavailable to pitch in Game 2 less than 24 hours later. However, with one out in the eighth inning of Game 2 and the Brewers sporting a one-run lead, Ashby trotted in from the 'pen to cover his usual high-leverage situation. He quickly closed out the inning, returned for the ninth, and earned a five-out save without allowing a single baserunner. It was a truly heroic performance from Ashby, and one that was pivotal to the Brewers building a 2-0 lead.

2. Game-tying solo homers

One of the dominating narratives heading into the postseason was that the Brewers don't hit enough home runs. Well, through the first two games of the NLCS, the Brewers are out-homering the Dodgers. It's by no means a landslide in the home run column -- the Brewers have crushed two homers through two games and the Dodgers have slugged exactly zero -- but Milwaukee's four-baggers have come at key moments in each game.

In Game 1, after Tarik Skubal rolled through the first three innings, Brice Turang led off the top of the fourth inning with an incredible opposite-field homer off the dominant southpaw. Turang's homer not only tied the game at one run apiece, but it also threw Skubal off of his rhythm, and the Brewers took the lead in the following inning.

In Game 2, a back-and-forth first four innings had the Brewers trailing by one run in the bottom of the fifth. However, that quickly changed when William Contreras crushed a solo homer off the scoreboard. Contreras was undoubtedly the MVP of Game 2, with three hits and three RBI to prove it. Two of his hits, one of which was his fifth-inning home run, tied the game, and his final hit in the sixth inning gave the Brewers the lead that held through the end of the contest.

3. Pat Murphy's lineup decisions

The Brewers' starting lineup was a hot topic ahead of Game 1 of the NLCS, as manager Pat Murphy elected not to start Christian Yelich, who was named the first captain in franchise history on the penultimate day of the regular season. Yelich, who hasn't faced Skubal much in his career, was replaced at the DH spot with Andrew Vaughn, who has seen a lot of the dominant southpaw in his career and has relatively good numbers against him. Murphy also elected to start rookie outfielder Luis Lara instead of Sal Frelick, who had a strong performance in the NLDS, on Sunday night.

Both Vaughn and Lara came through with hits in the series opener. Vaughn's was a one-out double in the second, and Lara's was a go-ahead single in the bottom of the fifth that ended up being the difference in Game 1, making Murphy's pre-game decisions look rather wise.

Lineup decisions were once again a key to the Brewers' victory in Game 2. With the right-handed Yamamoto on the bump, Yelich was back in the lineup, and Murphy called upon David Hamilton, who had just four plate appearances in the entire NLDS, to start over Joey Ortiz at third base. Yelich collected two hits and two RBI while Hamilton reached base four times, stole two bases, and scored three of the Brewers' seven runs. Through the first two games of the NLCS, Murphy's lineup decisions have paid off handsomely.

3 losers from the first two games of 2026 NLCS

1. Starting pitching

Pitting the Dodgers and Brewers' talented rotations against one another, the NLCS was supposed to be a showcase of starting pitching. However, through the first two games of the series, the performances from each team's initial out-getters have been rather underwhelming.

For the Brewers, Jacob Misiorowski's Game 1 stat line was by no means terrible -- he allowed just one run in 4.1 innings of work -- but the soon-to-be NL Cy Young award winner clearly didn't have his best stuff, and collected just five strikeouts to three walks. Logan Henderson, meanwhile, didn't pitch poorly, but two crucial throwing errors and a wild pitch allowed the Dodgers to rack up four runs, only two of which were earned, against the rookie right-hander. Neither Miz nor Henderson lived up to the lofty expectations they built for themselves this year.

However, the Dodgers' starting pitching display was even worse through the first two games of the NLCS. Skubal did cover more innings (5.0) and rack up more strikeouts (7) than Miz, but the second earned run he allowed proved to be critical as it led to he and the Dodgers suffering the loss in Game 1. Then, in Game 2, the Brewers forced Yamamoto to throw 75 pitches in his 2.2-inning start, during which he allowed three earned runs and struck out just one, in what was one of the roughest starts of the right-hander's MLB career.

2. Dodgers' former MVPs

The Dodgers have scored five runs through the first two games of the NLCS, and only one of them has been driven in by one of the three former MVPs in their lineup. Each of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani has taken home MVP awards at some point in their careers, and the trio was a key part of the Dodgers' two World Series titles in the last two years.

However, there's no denying the trio as a whole has taken a step back this year. Betts had a resurgent second half of the season to salvage a solid campaign, but Ohtani and Freeman each saw a noticeable dip in their output this year. Those struggles have persisted in the postseason. Though Freeman did homer twice in the NLDS, the trio has combined for just 13 hits in 65 at-bats during the playoffs, good for a .200 batting average. Pair that with just three RBI, all from Freeman, and the picture looks even bleaker for Los Angeles' big three.

In the NLCS thus far, Betts is 2-for-7, Freeman is 1-for-7 with two strikeouts, and Ohtani is 1-for-7 with three strikeouts. The production has been so bad that Los Angeles is even considering benching Ohtani, a 4x MVP, in Game 3 of the NLCS, which is a decision, now that it's been considered and publicized, that will result in backlash for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts one way or another.

3. Pick-off moves

Given how fundamentally sound both the Brewers and Dodgers typically are, it's surprising that pick-off moves going wrong have played a role in Games 1 and 2 of their NLCS matchup. First, though it didn't end up having an impact on the game, Jacob Misiorowski balked in Game 1 when stepping off to catch Teoscar Hernández at first base. Hernández broke early for second base before returning to first, and Miz picked him off, but home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso called the Brewers' ace for a balk. Misiorowski struck out the next batter and escaped the fourth inning unscathed, but it was nevertheless an odd misstep.

Later in Game 1, with balks on the minds of Brewers fans, Dodgers' southpaw Alex Vesia appeared to surpass the 45-degree rule when catching Jake Bauers with a pick-off move, but first base umpire Mark Wegner let him get away with it. The Brewers were in search of a key insurance run at the time, and another balk call, which easily could have been made, would have moved Bauers into scoring position with no outs.

In Game 2, however, poor pick-off moves played a much larger role. It started in the third inning when Henderson tried to pick-off Betts at first base with Tommy Edman standing on third, and bounced the throw to Bauers, who couldn't keep it in front of him. Edman scored from third to give the Dodgers a frustrating 2-1 lead and Betts moved up to second base.

Los Angeles returned the favor in the sixth inning when Brock Steward tried to pick off Hamilton at first base but the ball got past Freddie Freeman, who was somewhat surprisingly charged with the error on the play, and the Brewers' speedy infielder advanced to second base. Three batters later, Contreras drove Hamilton in from second base and the Brewers took the lead, which lasted through the end of the game. For two teams who seldom make unforced errors, seeing two pick-offs lead to free bases was rather surprising.

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