Shohei Ohtani stuns Brewers, leads Dodgers to consecutive World Series trips

For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to the World Series. On Friday night, Los Angeles completed a four-game NLCS sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Incredibly, in 10 postseason games, the Dodgers have only lost one game, their only loss coming against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS. The Dodgers swept the Cincinnati Reds in a two-game NL wild-card match and have accomplished the rare postseason sweep once more against the Brewers. And on Friday, it was all Shohei Ohtani.

Shohei Ohtani annihilates the Brewers, paves the way to the Fall Classic 

Ohtani got the nod to face the Brewers in Game 4, batting first in the Dodgers lineup. With three strikeouts to set the tone in the top of the first, it was clear the game would be a good one for the Dodgers. The 2024 – and likely 2025 – NL MVP started the fireworks with a historic leadoff home run, coming against Brewers lefty starter Jose Quintana. From there, the Dodgers didn’t look back.

Three singles and an RBI groundout after the Ohtani moonshot would make it 3-0 in the first inning. In the third, a pair of singles to the first two Dodgers batters of the inning would knock out Quintana after just two innings of work, giving way for Chad Patrick. The scoring would resume in the fourth inning, again with Ohtani, who cleared the stadium with his second home run of the game, making it 4-0. But he wasn’t done.

In the seventh inning, against Trevor Megill, the Brewers' third pitcher of the night, Ohtani hit his third home run of the game, cementing a 5-0 Dodgers’ lead. The shutout would come to an end in the eighth, when Blake Trienen allowed a double to Caleb Durbin, who then stole third base, and issued a walk to Andruw Monasterio. Anthony Banda would come on to surrender an RBI single to Jackson Chourio, scoring the Brewers' only run. In the ninth inning, Roki Sasaki would take the mound to finish Milwaukee's World Series dreams, ending the game 5-1.