Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy had just watched his club dismantle Los Angeles for a fourth straight National League Championship Series game. Standing with his team in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, he was ready to celebrate. But before popping his champagne and setting off a stream of celebratory suds, Murphy had a message.
We got a bunch of gamers.” Murphy had nailed the Dodgers to the wall, ending the season of a juggernaut who came into 2026 with eyes on becoming the first NL team to win three straight World Series titles. The Dodgers are dead, and instead, it’s Milwaukee who made history, becoming the first team to avenge an NLCS sweep by returning the favor against that very same team, the very next season. Making history, it seems, is a theme with these Brewers, who racked up a franchise-best 103 wins during the regular season, and have now dethroned a team who seemed a shoo-in to become baseball’s first true dynasty since the millennium.
Milwaukee transformed LA into a team of ghosts, and no more so than in Game 4. With the desperate Dodgers bidding to wake up the echoes with a 4-0 lead, the Brewers went to work. And again, it was Jake Bauers who broke LA’s back.
In Game 2, Bauers tortured Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto with an epic 12-pitch walk that sparked a key rally. In Game 3, there was an epic 11-pitch at-bat, this time against two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, concluding with a franchise-defining home run. In the fourth inning of Game 4, Bauers struck a double against starter Tyler Glasnow, cutting the Dodgers’ lead in half.
An inning later, Bauers – the journeyman infielder who paused his retirement and returned this season because he needed health insurance for his soon-to-be newborn – drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. Garrett Mitchell’s sixth-inning solo home run gave Milwaukee a lead that would hold up. An old-school, three-inning save by Aaron Ashby was the chef’s kiss.
Now Milwaukee will head to their first World Series since 1982. There will be plenty of time to ply the Brew Crew with pixelated plaudits as they await their American League opponents, the Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Guardians. First, though, comes the funeral.
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