On Day 5 of the league championship series, one team broke a series tie … and another advanced to the World Series.
In the finale of the National League Championship Series, the Milwaukee Brewers pulled off yet another come-from-behind win to sweep the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium and advance to their first Fall Classic since 1982.
After splitting the first two games in Tampa Bay, the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays faced off at Progressive Field in the day’s first game. Thanks to Petey Halpin — and his epic bat flip — Cleveland prevailed, taking a 2-1 American League Championship Series lead.
We have you covered with in-game action and postgame analysis from Los Angeles and Cleveland.
Key links:How final four teams were built | Playoff MVP tracker | Schedule
Milwaukee Brewers 6, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
It was over when …David Hamilton blasted a home run with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, extending the Milwaukee lead to two runs — which, for a Dodgers offense that was already down, must have felt like a finishing body blow. At the moment of contact, a collective ooooh could be heard in the lowest bowl of Dodger Stadium.
The stat that defined the game:The Dodgers went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, repeatedly squandering chances to tie the game in the final innings. They had a runner at second and one out in the sixth, a runner at third with one out in the seventh and a runner at third with one out in the eighth. Time and again, they could not plate the run they needed to knot the score. — Buster Olney
Game 4 star:After a typical Brewers rally from a four-run deficit (they tied it up with no home runs), Garrett Mitchell lit up Dodgers lefty Tanner Scott for a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth. The rally typified how the Brewers play when they are at their best, and the lockdown bullpen always deserves plaudits. But it was Mitchell’s blast that put Milwaukee in position to roll out its “A” bullpen with a lead to protect. — Bradford Doolittle
More stats from the Brewers’ sweep of the Dodgers
• After being swept by the Dodgers in last October’s NLCS, the Brewers are the first team in MLB history to sweep the opponent that swept it in the previous postseason.
• All of the Brewers’ wins this postseason have been credited to relief pitchers; since the LCS was instituted in 1969, no team has reached the World Series without a starting pitcher recording a win.
• The Brewers become the first team in MLB history with six comeback wins over its first eight games of a postseason.
• The Brewers are the fifth team in MLB history to overcome a four-plus-run deficit to clinch a best-of-seven playoff series and the first to do it to finish a sweep.
• The Game 4 win was the Brewers’ fifth straight, the longest streak in franchise postseason history. (They also won four straight in 1982 and 2018.)
• The Dodgers are the fifth reigning World Series champions to be swept in a best-of-seven series (first since 1990 Athletics vs. Reds in the World Series). The last reigning WS champions that were swept in any series were the 2005 Red Sox (ALDS vs. White Sox) and the only back-to-back defending champions that were swept in a playoff series were the 1975 Athletics (ALCS vs. Red Sox) and 1963 Yankees (World Series vs. Dodgers).
• This was the Dodgers’ seventh straight game with fewer than five runs scored, their longest streak since a seven-game streak in June 2018 (regular season and postseason).
Highlights from Milwaukee’s win
Brewers complete the sweep, punch their ticket to the World Series
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Milwaukee adds an insurance run in the 9th
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Dodgers continue to struggle with runners in scoring position
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Brewers take lead off of Mitchell’s solo homer
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A bases-loaded walk from Vesia ties the game
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Bauers’ 2-run double makes it 4-2
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Ohtani breaks slump with 3-run blast to give L.A. 4-run lead
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Pages gets Dodgers on the board first
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Game 4 kicks off with wild play
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Cleveland Guardians 3, Tampa Bay Rays 2
It was over when …Petey Halpin cranked a 96 mph sinker down the middle from Griffin Jax in the fifth inning. The ball landed deep into the right-field seats, 385 feet away, for a go-ahead two-run home run. Halpin flipped his bat nearly that high, too, and Cleveland didn’t look back.
Game 3 star:Halpin, who began the season in Triple-A, had four big league home runs — all during the regular season — in 213 career plate appearances before Thursday. The center fielder’s first postseason homer was the difference Thursday.
The stat that defined the game:The Rays’ 13 strikeouts against Guardians pitching. The Rays posted the lowest strikeout rate in the majors this season at 18.8%. They struck out more than 12 times once, when they compiled 14 strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brewers back on March 30 in their fourth game of the season. Rays star Junior Caminero went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts — matching a career high from 2025. So Thursday was an extreme outlier. Guardians starter Gavin Williams, the American League’s strikeout leader this season, had nine strikeouts in five innings before four relievers combined for the remaining four punchouts. Tampa Bay will have to put the ball in play more to come back and win this series.
What it means for the rest of the series: With rain in the forecast Friday, there’s a chance this series won’t play Game 4 until Saturday. If so, the clubs would play Game 5 on Sunday, which would take away their travel day before a potential Game 6 in Tampa Bay on Monday. For now, Game 4 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Friday.— Jorge Castillo
Highlights from Cleveland’s win
Halpin’s homer, um, flips lead back to Guardians
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Simpson silences Cleveland crowd with two-run triple
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Guardians score first on Lowe’s double
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A series-defining day?
