MILWAUKEE — Mookie Betts slapped his bat with his free hand after tipping a slider from Brewers right-hander Abner Uribe into the glove of catcher William Contreras.
Betts had set the tone for the Dodgers from first place all postseason, winning some good at-bats against some of the best starting pitchers in MLB. But he couldn’t do much against a mix of sinkers and sliders like Uribe’s.
Uribe left the mound and the crowd at American Family Field roared.
Then, with the arrival of left-hander Freddie Freeman at the plate, Milwaukee had an answer for him as well. Manager Pat Murphy motioned to the bullpen, left-hander Aaron Ashby emerged and struck out Freeman on four pitches, only one of which hit the strike zone.
“They’re all throwing 100 (mph) from different angles,” Freeman said after the Dodgers’ 7-4 loss in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday.
Those consecutive eighth-inning outs were part of five perfect innings pitched by the Brewers bullpen – a postseason record. And the Dodgers’ inability to rally against the Brewers’ relievers, coupled with the shortest start of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Dodgers career, dashed their chances of tying the series.
The NLCS heads to Los Angeles with the Brewers leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
The Dodgers’ performance against the Brewers bullpen on Monday magnified how much the all-star lineup didn’t click with Shohei Ohtani struggling at the plate. He went 0 for 4 in the cleanup spot in Game 2, bringing his postseason total to three hits, all singles, in 20 at-bats.
Manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic after the game that he would “have a conversation” with Ohtani on Tuesday to determine “what’s best for him, what’s best for (the team).”
The decision on whether the situation has become dire enough to bench Ohtani is factored into the fact that the superstar designated hitter likely isn’t fully healthy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Ohtani has had issues with his left knee and right biceps for much of the year. But it has been difficult since he returned from the injured list to determine whether his health, poor swing habits caused by previous injuries or a combination of the two were to blame for his poor performance.
Ohtani hasn’t spoken to the media since the day before the NLDS opener.
“It’s hard,” said Teoscar Hernández. “We obviously need his help. He’s a very important part of this team, and it’s really important. And I feel bad for him. I know what he’s capable of. He’s had to deal with some things in the past. We don’t know if it’s still there. But it’s Shohei. He can come out of it at any time.”
The game wasn’t doomed per se when Yamamoto exited after 2 ⅔ innings, but it was clear that it would be an uphill battle for the Dodgers.
Yamamoto stood on the same mound where he pitched a complete game a year ago and was struck by chants from Brewers fans:
“Yel-li, Yel-li”
As fans celebrated Brewers captain Christian Yelich’s two-run single on a curveball, Roberts emerged from the visiting dugout, ready to take the ball from the starter who had made a household name with his postseason exploits.
“He just didn’t have it tonight, which is very rare,” Roberts said.
Yamamoto’s two walks in the inning set Yelich up for a big at-bat. The first march, towards Brice Turang, included a call limit of four. Yamamoto’s hand flew to the back of his hat as if considering an ABS challenge, but neither he nor catcher Will Smith pulled the trigger. And the second, that of Jake Bauers, lasted 12 throws.
The other run he allowed, in the first inning, also included a missed challenge opportunity.
Yamamoto struck out Jackson Chourio — whose leadoff home run last year was Yamamoto’s only NLCS complete-game run — to open the frame.
Then Turang went for a full count – although the first ball caught most of the low and outside corner – before hitting a double into the opposite field.
“It was kind of early in the match, we kind of had him on the ropes where we could just take him out,” Smith said. “The first walk was disappointing but I guess it happens. It’s baseball.”
The next batter, William Contreras, batted away a low slider, pushing it into shallow left field to tie the score.
Against Brewers starter Logan Henderson, the Dodgers took advantage of a few errant pitches from the pitcher, a putout attempt and a sacrifice bunt, to contribute two unearned runs on a day when he allowed four runs in all.
Hernández and Freeman hit sacrifice flies in the first and fifth innings, respectively. Freeman broke away from former Dodger Dustin May, driving a racer inherited from Henderson. And that’s all the Dodgers accomplished against the same relief corps that held them off the day before.
“If there’s a positive, you can say a lot of our guys are starting to take an interest in their backfield guys,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “But when they’re as good as they are, I don’t know how much that helps. Unfortunately, that’s the problem.”
If the Dodgers want to bounce back in this series, they’ll either have to find a way to score against the Brewers’ suffocating bullpen or build early leads and hold them.
The Dodgers were forced to start seven relievers behind Yamamoto. In the fifth inning, with the Dodgers leading 4-3, Roberts called on left-hander Kris Bubic – replacing right-hander Roki Sasaki after a hitless inning – to deal with the heavy-hearted lefty in the order. But Bubic missed up the middle to Contreras, who sent the fastball over the center field wall, tying the score.
In the sixth, against Dodgers right-hander Brock Stewart, Contreras gave the go-ahead run in a traffic-filled inning that included a muffled takedown attempt. Dodgers left-hander Tanner Scott came to the rescue and struck out Bauers and Yelich to end the inning (and Garrett Mitchell to pitch the seventh).
The Brewers added insurance runs in the eighth inning, with two singles against right-hander Edgardo Henriquez and a third against left-hander Justin Wrobleski.
“The guys here are really good at staying together,” Betts said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of doubt. I think we just have to come together and figure out what we need to do individually. But there’s no doubt.”
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