MILWAUKEE — The Brewers insisted this year would be different. And indeed, one game away from this rematch of the National League Championship Series, it already is. With their ace on the mound and a raucous American Family Field behind them, the Brewers needed Game 1. And they got it. On a night that was filled with drama from the start, Milwaukee put together a brilliant effort from its bullpen to beat the Dodgers 2-1 on Sunday. “These are the games we live for,” Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said. “We love doing this.” This series already looks drastically different from the one these two National League heavyweights starred in last October. A year ago, Los Angeles won Game 1 on the road and then never looked back en route to a sweep. These Brewers won’t go down so easily. Not with this version of Jacob Misiorowski. Not with this bullpen. Not with this offense, which suddenly seems capable of beating you with both the small ball and the long ball. Turang’s home run off Tarik Skubal tied the game in the fourth. An inning later, a walk and bunt put Garrett Mitchell in scoring position, and Luis Lara drove in. The Milwaukee corral made sure that lead held. “You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to win only four,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. The Los Angeles offense certainly made Misiorowski work, particularly during a 35-pitch second inning. Shohei Ohtani led off the frame with a walk and scored on Andy Pages’ RBI single. LA loaded the bases with one out. Misiorowski was on the ropes. But there’s a reason Misiorowski is almost certain to win the NL Cy Young Award, and it’s not simply because he throws heat. Without his best swing-and-miss technique, he found a way. He got Kiké Hernández to jump into an inning-ending double play, with a soft pick at short by Cooper Pratt and an excellent turn at second by Turang. The Brewers had life. “I didn’t think I had my best stuff,” Misiorowski said. “Obviously good enough to make it work. Props to my defense behind me.” Even as the Dodgers increased their pitch count, Misiorowski managed to navigate the issues. He allowed five hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings. He only allowed one run. After a disputed no-call took what could have been the final out off the board in the fourth inning, Misiorowski finished the frame with a nasty cutter past Kyle Tucker. He clenched his fist and jumped off the mound. Three pitches later, the game was tied. “Yeah, 2-0 sinking, pretty good,” Skubal said. “It’s in the zone, but it’s in. I’ll tip my hat to a pitch like that. … I’m going to live with it, left to left. He put a good swing on it.” Said Turang: “I didn’t want to foul again with a ball on my knee. So I thought, ‘I’m going to stay inside this one, not try to do too much, just go back up the middle and get in.’ I just got it. I just try to stay inside it, take it to the middle. Sometimes less is more.” One inning later, the Brewers took the lead with the brand of ball that has defined them. They won 103 games this way during the regular season. Why change now? Mitchell took a walk. Cooper Pratt bunted to second. Brewers manager Pat Murphy was entrusting one of his rookies, Pratt, with the preparation of another. Lara, the 21-year-old outfielder, quickly rewarded that faith, batting away Skubal’s first-pitch changeup to center field. Milwaukee led and American Family Field went into a frenzy. “Both [Lara] “And Pratt is here not knowing they were going to be in the big leagues,” Murphy said. “And they’re both very conscious of doing it the right way.” The Brewers had already scored more runs (two) than in any of the four games during last year’s National League Championship Series. Abner Uribe followed with a goalless sixth. Aaron Ashby covered the seventh and eighth. Trevor Megill had the ninth and quickly recorded the first two outs. But these Brewers have maximized the drama throughout October. They are just the fourth team to start the playoffs with five consecutive games decided by two runs or less, following a fascinating NLDS against San Diego. Megill walked Kyle Tucker, then pinch-hitter Josue De Paula, bringing Mookie Betts to the plate with the go-ahead runs on board. Betts took a hitable fastball from Megill and sent a deep drive to center field. It was in Mitchell’s glove at the warning track. “They got their success,” Betts said. “At some point, we have to get ours.” In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams that took a 1-0 lead won that series 127 of 197 times (64%). In series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams that won Game 1 at home won that series 69 of 103 times (67%). “It’s going to be a long series,” Roberts said. “We knew it coming in. We had our opportunities. But they made plays and shots when they needed to.”
