Those who celebrated the Dodgers’ demise after being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers miss the better story: the Brewers have become the team LA (and other clubs) want to be.
The Brewers have everything they need to win a championship. Their smallball philosophy works, as we saw in the NLCS. They can pitch. You talk about their starting pitching, but their relievers can throw heat. You can also see they’re well managed under the excellent Pat Murphy.
The Brewers earned this moment. They built a World Series team through smart drafting, shrewd trades, and player development. They deserve more than a supporting role in somebody else’s disappointment.
A year after the Dodgers swept Milwaukee in the NLCS, Milwaukee returned the favor. That reversal is part of what makes baseball beautiful. But the Brewers’ story is bigger than revenge. It’s about the power of we. The Brewers play with a cohesion that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. A championship would reward not only the players, but also an organization that trusted its approach.
Milwaukee stayed with its blueprint under president of baseball operations Matt Arnold. This pennant reminds us that patience still has a place in a sport that judges everything by October. That was the moral of this year’s postseason story.
I knew the Brewers were good, but they are better than I thought. I wondered whether their division had tested them enough and whether their small-ball philosophy would work in October against power-hitting teams.
Photo courtesy of NPR
The Brewers responded with an emphatic “Yes!” Their patient at-bats and ability to manufacture opportunities have held up under postseason pressure. They have also shown a killer instinct against the Padres. Most importantly, they showed this year’s club has learned from past disappointments.
In Game 1, they finally got to Dodgers trade-deadline acquisition Tarik Skubal and came back from behind to win 2-1. Brewers stud ace Jacob Miorowski escaped a second-inning jam, keeping the Dodgers’ lead at 1-0 and setting the stage for a comeback. Then, in Game 2, the Brewers got productive at-bats against one of the best postseason pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was pulled in the third inning after throwing 75 pitches. Jake Bauers worked a 12-pitch walk. Christian Yelich followed with a two-out, two-run single that gave Milwaukee a 3–2 third-inning lead. Yes, the Dodgers regained the lead, but Milwaukee answered again to win 7–4. The Brewers’ third-inning rally set the tone.
The Brewers always had an answer when the Dodgers led in all four NLCS games. That’s why they will make their first World Series appearance since 1982. That showed how much they had learned from last year’s disappointment.
It’s hard to believe they will be denied the ultimate prize. Yes, you can make a case that the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians will be a stern test, but it won’t be a new challenge. This club has a record of rising to the occasion when it matters most.
Yeah, I know some readers may scoff at my assertion that the Brewers are the year’s best sports story. Many feel the Knicks fill that bill. But New York is a marquee franchise with a long history, while Milwaukee represents a small market miracle.
In the world of money counts in sports, that is REALLY something to shout about!
