Whicker: Brewers-Dodgers, a David Goliath NLCS and David owns home field advantage

Brewers sensatio Jacob Misiorowski has been deployed as a middle reliever this post season.

October 13, 2025

By Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

Seven years ago the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers were in this same place.

The National League Championship Series would start in Milwaukee. Those Brewers had Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader on the mound. Christian Yelich was the Most Valuable Player. Ryan Braun was a former MVP. Lorenzo Cain was a state-of-the-art centre fielder.

In no way were they underdogs.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, were forced to play a 163rd game against Colorado to win the National League West title, although they were already qualified for the playoffs. They had to rent Manny Machado to make sure they got there. He was playing shortstop because Corey Seager was out. Talent was no problem, not with Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig, Justin Turner and Joc Pederson on offence, and with Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler starting and Kenley Jansen closing.

But this team had won 12 fewer games than the 104-win team the year before, and 14 fewer than the 106-win team would win the year after. This would be a heavy lift. Those who were favoring the Dodgers because of payroll differential had Chatty Kathy rings in their necks.

As we know, the Dodgers won in seven games. They did so because Chris Taylor, the quiet mechanic who spent years fine-tuning the Dodgers’ offence, was playing left field in the sixth inning and sprawled to make a brilliant catch off Yelich, near the wall. Had he not, the Brewers would have tied the game, 2-2, and Dave Roberts had already removed Buehler because he wanted Julio Urias to face Yelich.

Now it was still 2-1, and because of jittery managing by Craig Counsell, closer Hader was already gone. With Jeremy Jeffress pitching, Puig slammed a three-run homer that made it 5-1, and the Dodgers finished it off without a problem. Then they were dispatched by the Red Sox in a five-game World Series. It took the Dodgers 18 innings to get their only win.

This NLCS started Monday night. The Brewers don’t have the star power anymore, although Yelich is still around, and yet they have the best record in baseball. They also have the 23rd highest payroll in baseball. The Dodgers spend $231 million more on their roster than Milwaukee does. This time, there’s a legitimate David vs. Goliath aspect to this, except David somehow earned home field.

One reason is that the Brewers were 6-0 against the Dodgers in the regular season. Those games came within a 13-day span in June and were part of an 11-game winning streak, which was the setup for a 14-game streak that began a couple of weeks later. Not much can be gleaned from those wins, except Milwaukee did beat up Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the first of those six games.

The next night the Brewers unleashed rookie Jacob Misiorowski on the Dodgers, and he struck out 12 in six innings. They were at the top of their game, and the Dodgers were making errors and the bullpen was a slot machine.

Things are different now. Despite a well-earned reputation for turning pitchers into hamburger, the Dodgers have the best rotation in the playoffs. Thanks to their patience with 23-year-old Roki Sasaki, their bullpen outperformed Philadelphia’s in the Division Series.

Sasaki pitched in three of the four games and had two saves, and he gave up one hit, with zero walks, in 4 1/3 innings. He spent most of the season resting a bad shoulder after the Cubs had battered him in his second start. Now he has allowed Roberts to forget most of the lost causes in his bullpen, and figure out places to use three effective lefties: Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda.

The Dodgers only hit .199 against the Phillies and were helpless against starters Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo, and Shohei Ohtani was 1-for-18. But the Brewers don’t have Woodruff (just as the Phillies didn’t have Zack Wheeler). They do have Misiorowski, who has been the mid-inning reliever, and they have Abner Uribe as the closer, although Trevor Megill was healthy enough to open Game 5 against the Cubs. The rotation looks like Freddy Peralta, Fonzie, Potsi, and Chachi, especially since Quinn Priester didn’t make it to the second inning of his start against the Cubs.

Two-time World Baseball Classic Team Canada 1B Freddie Freeman, former MVP winner.

That’s not the best way to approach the longest lineup card in baseball, and the Phillies discovered that there’s no dropoff after Freddie Freeman. Will Smith, Max Muncy, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernandez live for the ninth inning, with two on and two out. But the Brewers have mixed and matched their way to victory before.

“We’ve done it this way all year,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Pitch to pitch, out to out.”

And if they lose, it won’t be for lack of velocity.

What distinguishes the Brewers is their gang-tackle approach to offence. They hit 78 fewer homers than did the Dodgers, who led the league with 244, but they scored only 19 fewer runs. They led the NL in batting average, steals and on-base percentage, and yet they won Game 5 of the Division Series with three home runs. The homer that gave Milwaukee a 3-1 lead in that game was struck by Brice Turang, a former first-round pick from the Corona (Ca.) High baseball factory who has become one of the best young players in baseball. He hit .288 this season and is in line for the second consecutive Gold Glove at second base.

There’s no doubt that a Brewers’ victory would be applauded throughout baseball, especially in front offices, by those frustrated with the Dodgers’ Muskian ability to spend away their mistakes. But if sheer riches meant so much, the Mets wouldn’t be watching so many post-season games at their respective villas.

It will take a large wheelbarrow of rocks, with industrial-strength slingshots, for Milwaukee to pull this off, primarily because the Dodgers have the same scrappy approach. They love everything about October but the surprise.