Dodgers-Brewers NLCS Pits MLB's Two Best Records — SkimNews
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- Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers open the 2025 NLCS tonight at 8 ET, pitting MLB's top two regular-season records — Milwaukee won the most games with the best run differential, while the Dodgers had the second-most wins and second-best differential
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called this only the fourth postseason meeting since 1995 between teams holding both the top two records and the top two run differentials, and the first since the 107-win Giants faced the 106-win Dodgers in 2020
- The Dodgers swept last year's NLCS against these same Brewers, holding Milwaukee to a .118 batting average and just four total runs across the entire series
- The Dodgers acquired ace Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline for three prospects, outbidding Milwaukee, which refused to meet Detroit's asking price — and Skubal now lines up to start against the team that passed on him
- Brewers manager Pat Murphy said he regrets framing his team as underdogs last October, calling Milwaukee's 103-win roster fully equipped to dethrone Los Angeles in a rematch
- Jacob Misiorowski, a 105-mph flamethrower for the Brewers, faces two-time defending Cy Young winner Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a series arriving as MLB braces for a winter labor lockout with "no end in sight"
Why it matters: The Dodgers are two wins from the first three-peat since the 1998-2000 Yankees, and the Brewers haven't reached a World Series since 1982 — so this rare meeting of MLB's top two records carries both dynasty and drought stakes while a likely winter lockout threatens to freeze the sport for an unknown stretch.
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