Dodgers-Brewers NLCS: MLB's Two Best Records Collide — SkimNews
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- Milwaukee opens the NLCS tonight at 8 ET against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with both teams ranking as MLB's top two by wins and run differential — just the third such matchup since 1995 and first since the 107-win Giants faced the 106-win Dodgers in the NLDS.
- Jacob Misiorowski takes the ball for the Brewers, a "Slender Man-shaped marvel" whose 105-mph fastballs make him the hardest-throwing starter in MLB's 150-year history; Yoshinobu Yamamoto is "the best postseason pitcher on the planet" for the Dodgers.
- The Dodgers swept the 2025 NLCS in four games with Milwaukee batting .118 and scoring four runs total — a stark contrast to this year's 103-win Brewers squad that holds home-field advantage despite Los Angeles being the betting favorite.
- Tarik Skubal is now a Dodger after Los Angeles gave up three prospects at the deadline; Milwaukee was in the Skubal sweepstakes but declined Detroit's asking price because the margin for error on a small-market team is "perilously slim."
- The Brewers haven't reached a World Series since 1982 in their 58-year history, while the Dodgers chase the first three-peat since the 1998-2000 Yankees after winning back-to-back titles.
- Major League Baseball faces a winter shutdown from a labor battle with "no end in sight," per the source, making this NLCS "salvific" — potentially the last showcase of high-level play for months.
- Pat Murphy told reporters: "When you're writing the last words of the Milwaukee Brewers' championship, you'd want it to go through the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's the way it has to be, if it's an incredible story."
Why it matters: The NLCS winner emerges from just the third postseason matchup since 1995 featuring the top two teams by both wins and run differential, with the Dodgers bidding for the first three-peat since the 1998-2000 Yankees and the Brewers chasing their first World Series since 1982. The series caps a season headed into a winter labor shutdown.
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