Brewers' bullpen steals the show again in Game 1 win over Dodgers

Game 1 of the 2026 National League Championship Series started with a big-ticket starting pitching matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers' Tarik Skubal and the Milwaukee Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski.

While they were both fine in their starts, it ended with the Brewers' bullpen stealing the show in a 2-1 win, giving them an early 1-0 lead in the series.

It continues what has been a season-long story for the Brewers bullpen, and one that is only getting better in the playoffs.

Brewers bullpen continues to dominate

Baseball has evolved in a lot of ways over the past 20-25 years, and one of the biggest evolutions is how pitching staffs and bullpens are utilized and specialized.

Starting pitchers rarely go beyond the sixth inning.

Pitch counts and the number of times a starter faces a lineup in a single game take priority. It's about keeping people fresh to be able to throw max-effort innings, while also trying to get the best possible individual matchups. It's a big analytical change, and it's changed the way games are played and managed.

It's put an entirely new focus on what a bullpen needs to be and how much depth it needs to have.

The 2026 Brewers are the embodiment of all of that.

They have had one of the league's best bullpens all season, and it has become even more dominant in the playoffs. They were nearly unhittable in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, and followed that up with a stellar Game 1 against the Dodgers. 

With Misiorowski getting lifted after 4.2 innings and 94 pitches, manager Pat Murphy had to turn the game over to his bullpen, and they were masterful.

Relievers DL Hall, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined to throw 4.2 innings of one-hit, shutout ball. 

While Megill had a rocky ninth inning to close it with a pair of walks to the bottom of the order before getting Mookie Betts to fly out to center field, it was about as good a performance as the Brewers could have hoped for. 

The Brewers have played five games this postseason, winning four of them, and their bullpen has allowed just one run in those games. That is a big deal in the modern game, and there is nobody right now who has a better one than them. It helped them get the best record in the National League. It has them three steps away from the World Series in the playoffs.