Forty-four years. That is how long Milwaukee waited. On Thursday, October 15, 2026, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, completing a 4-0 sweep and reaching the World Series for the first time since 1982. And they did it the hard way, from 4-0 down.
Early on, this looked like a Los Angeles night. The Dodgers led 4-0 in the second inning, on an Andy Pages RBI single and a three-run homer by Shohei Ohtani, reported at 428 feet and described as his first homer of this postseason. A home crowd, a four-run cushion, a superstar’s swing. Milwaukee’s season could have wobbled right there. It did not.
The Comeback, Inning by Inning
Jake Bauers started the climb in the fourth inning with a two-run double that cut the lead in half and changed the mood in the building. In the fifth, the Brewers tied the game, with Bauers again in the middle of it, drawing a bases-loaded walk that forced in a run. There is a particular kind of pressure in a bases-loaded walk in a clinching game. No swing, no glory, just discipline. Bauers stood in, took his pitch selection seriously, and let the game come to him.
The go-ahead moment arrived in the sixth. Garrett Mitchell hit a solo homer off Tanner Scott to put Milwaukee in front 5-4, a lead the Brewers never gave back. Then, for insurance and a little breathing room, No. 9 hitter David Hamilton added a solo homer in the ninth off Edwin Diaz, pushing the margin to 6-4. When your ninth-place hitter is homering in the ninth inning of a series clincher, your lineup is doing something right from top to bottom.
Our coverage of the Brewers moving one win from the World Series in Game 3 set up this finish. Game 4 delivered it, with interest – a comeback, a sweep and a pennant in one night.
A Bullpen Game Done Right
Milwaukee won this as a bullpen game, and the numbers tell the story plainly. Four Milwaukee pitchers held Los Angeles scoreless over the final seven innings. Seven innings, no runs, against a lineup that had put up four before the third inning began. JoJo Romero, who finished 2-1, threw two innings for the win. Aaron Ashby threw the final three frames for his second save of the postseason.
Behind them, catcher William Contreras guided the staff through the whole plan. Bullpen games live or die on sequencing – the right arm at the right moment, no panic when a plan meets a hot hitter. Contreras and manager Pat Murphy kept the changes calm and purposeful, and a Dodgers lineup that looked ready to explode in the second inning never scored again.
MVP Bauers and a Bit of History
Jake Bauers was named NLCS MVP, and Game 4 showed why. He finished the series 4-for-14, batting .286, with one homer and six RBIs. In the clincher alone, he drove in three of Milwaukee’s six runs – the two-run double that started the comeback and the bases-loaded walk that helped tie it. MVPs are often decided by one loud swing. Bauers built his case on timing, again and again, in the moments that bent the series.
The sweep also carries a neat historical twist. Milwaukee is the first club to complete a postseason sweep of the same opponent that swept it in the previous postseason. Los Angeles swept Milwaukee in last year’s NLCS. This year, Milwaukee returned the favour, in full, on the Dodgers’ own field. Captain Christian Yelich, quoted in coverage of the series, has been the public face of this group, and nights like this are why veteran voices matter in a clubhouse – someone has to say, calmly, that 4-0 down in the second inning is a scoreline, not a verdict.
What 1982 Means, and What Comes Next
Milwaukee’s only previous World Series appearance came in 1982, when the club played as an American League team and lost in seven games to St. Louis. Fans who watched that series as children are grandparents now. A 44-year gap is not just a statistic. It is two generations of supporters who bought the tickets, wore the caps and waited for a pennant that kept not arriving.
This team earned its way here across the long season, too. USA Today reported that Milwaukee won a club-record 103 regular season games. A record like that, followed by a sweep of the opponent that ended their previous run, marks this as no fluke. This was a 103-win team, playing like it when the games tightened.
Baseball rewards patience in odd ways, a little like nature does – our recent story on the Jurassic bird that chose to run was, in its own way, about a long road taken step by step. Milwaukee’s road ran through 44 Octobers. It ends, for now, at the World Series.
The World Series opens Friday, October 23, with Milwaukee holding home-field advantage. Their opponent will be the winner of the Guardians-Rays ALCS, so the Brewers get a week to rest their bullpen, set their rotation and let the city enjoy this. They have earned the breather. A team that trailed 4-0 on the road, in a building expecting a fightback, and scored six unanswered runs to finish a sweep does not need to prove its nerve to anyone.
For one night, at least, put the matchups and the rest days aside. Milwaukee is going to the World Series. The Brewers swept the Dodgers to get there, their MVP drove in half their runs in the clincher, and a 44-year wait ended with a No. 9 hitter’s homer and three scoreless frames from Aaron Ashby. Some pennants are won. This one was taken, inning by inning, from a team that thought the night was theirs. Enjoy it, Milwaukee. You have waited long enough.
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