2018 National League Championship Series
| 2018 National League Championship Series | |||||||||||||
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| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 12–20, 2018 | ||||||||||||
| MVP | TBD | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Scott Barry (Games 1–2), Gerry Davis (crew chief), Greg Gibson (Games 3–4), Brian Gorman, Alan Porter, Hunter Wendelstedt, Jim Wolf | ||||||||||||
| NLDS |
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| Broadcast | |||||||||||||
| Television |
FS1 Fox (Game 2) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Joe Buck, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal, and Tom Verducci | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Chris Singleton | ||||||||||||
The 2018 National League Championship Series is a best-of-seven playoff pitting the Milwaukee Brewers against the Los Angeles Dodgers, for the National League (NL) pennant and the right to play in the 2018 World Series. The series is the 49th in league history, with Fox airing all games in the United States. This series is the first time two teams that won their division in a tiebreaker game faced each other in a playoff series. This is the first ever postseason match-up between the Brewers and Dodgers. The Brewers and Dodgers are tied at one game apiece.
For the second year, Major League Baseball sold presenting sponsorships to all of its postseason series; as with the ALCS, this NLCS is sponsored by Google Assistant and is officially known as the National League Championship Series presented by Google Assistant.[1]
Background
The Brewers won the National League Central division for the first time since 2011 in a tie-breaker game over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and then swept the Colorado Rockies in the National League Division Series. Dating back to the regular season, the Brewers had won 11 straight going into the NLCS. By virtue of their regular season record, highest in the league, the Brewers hold home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs.
This is the Brewers’ third League Championship Series and second in the National League, their prior NL appearance being a 2011 NLCS loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in six games. Milwaukee also appeared in and won the 1982 ALCS, occurring during their 29 year stay in the American League.
Like the Brewers, the Dodgers won the National League West in a tie-breaker game, defeating the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium for their sixth straight division title. The Dodgers then beat the Atlanta Braves in four games in the NLDS. This is the Dodgers’ third straight appearance in the NLCS, and their fourth appearance in the past six seasons. Overall, this is their 13th NLCS trip, tying the Cardinals for most appearances by a team.
This is the first ever playoff matchup between the Brewers and Dodgers. The two cities did meet with the pennant on the line in 1959 when the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves (now the Atlanta Braves) in a best-of-three playoff. However, MLB counts the tie-breaker series as regular season games.
This is also the first ever League Championship Series between two teams that won tiebreakers, and only the third postseason meeting of any sort between two MLB teams involved in tiebreakers. The first ever such meeting was the 2018 National League Wild Card Game in which the Rockies defeated the Cubs and the second was the NLDS in which the Brewers defeated the Rockies. The 2018 NLCS winner will become the first tiebreaker team since the 2007 Colorado Rockies to reach the World Series.
Los Angeles was 4–3 in their seven games against Milwaukee during this year's regular season.
Summary
Series tied, 1–1.
| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 12 | Los Angeles Dodgers – 5, Milwaukee Brewers – 6 | Miller Park | 4:02 | 43,615[2] |
| 2 | October 13 | Los Angeles Dodgers – 4, Milwaukee Brewers – 3 | Miller Park | 3:31 | 43,905[3] |
| 3 | October 15 | Milwaukee Brewers @ Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodger Stadium | 4:39 pm (PDT) | - |
| 4 | October 16 | Milwaukee Brewers @ Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodger Stadium | 6:09 pm (PDT) | - |
| 5 | October 17 | Milwaukee Brewers @ Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodger Stadium | 2:05 pm (PDT) | - |
| 6 | October 19† | Los Angeles Dodgers @ Milwaukee Brewers | Miller Park | 7:39 pm (CDT) | - |
| 7 | October 20† | Los Angeles Dodgers @ Milwaukee Brewers | Miller Park | 8:09 pm (CDT) | - |
†: if necessary
Game summaries
Game 1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Milwaukee | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 6 | 11 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Brandon Woodruff (1–0) LP: Clayton Kershaw (0–1) Sv: Corey Knebel (1) Home runs: LAD: Manny Machado (1) MIL: Brandon Woodruff (1), Jesús Aguilar (1) Attendance: 43,615 Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Clayton Kershaw started game one for the Dodgers, while Gio González started for the Brewers. The Dodgers scored first, on a solo homer by Manny Machado in the second inning, which was the only run and hit allowed by González who was replaced after only two innings. His replacement, relief pitcher Brandon Woodruff, homered off Kershaw to tie the game in the third inning. A sacrifice fly by Hernán Pérez scored Lorenzo Cain to put the Brewers up 2–1 after three. A two-run pinch-hit single by Domingo Santana in the fourth inning extended the lead to three and a single by Ryan Braun scored Santana to make it 5–1. Kershaw allowed five runs on six hits and two walks in a little over three innings, the shortest post-season outing of his career. Yasmani Grandal of the Dodgers became the first catcher in post-season history to have two errors and two passed balls in the same game. The Brewers added on to their lead when Jesús Aguilar hit solo homer off Julio Urías in the seventh inning. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the eighth inning against Joakim Soria and managed to score three runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Machado and Matt Kemp off of Jeremy Jeffress to narrow the gap to 6–4. Chris Taylor hit an RBI triple in the ninth off Corey Knebel, who managed to retire Justin Turner to save the 6–5 win for the Brewers.[4]
Brandon Woodruff became only the third relief pitcher in major league history to homer in a postseason game, matching the feat of Rosy Ryan (in Game 3 of the 1924 World Series) and Travis Wood (in Game 2 of the 2016 NLDS).[5]
Game 2
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Milwaukee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Pedro Báez (1–0) LP: Jeremy Jeffress (0–1) Sv: Kenley Jansen (1) Home runs: LAD: Justin Turner (1) MIL: Orlando Arcia (1), Travis Shaw (1) Attendance: 43,905 Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Hyun-jin Ryu started the second game for the Dodgers and Wade Miley for the Brewers. The game remained scoreless into the fifth inning, when Orlando Arcia hit a solo homer to put the Brewers on the board. They scored a second run on an RBI groundout by Ryan Braun. Ryu was lifted after 41⁄3 innings, he allowed two runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Miley pitched 52⁄3 shutout innings with no walks and only two hits allowed. Travis Shaw homered off Alex Wood in the sixth inning to extend the lead to three. An RBI single by Cody Bellinger in the seventh inning off Corbin Burnes gave the Dodgers their first run of the game. A bases loaded walk by Jeremy Jeffress scored another run for the Dodgers. The Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth when Justin Turner hit a two-run home run off of Jeffress. This was Turner's second career go-ahead home run in the seventh inning or later in the postseason, joining Kirk Gibson as the only other Dodger to accomplish this feat multiple times. The Dodgers bullpen kept the Brewers from scoring and they won the game 4–3 to even up the series.[6] This was the Brewers first loss since September 22.[7]
Game 3
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Los Angeles | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Starting pitchers: MIL: Jhoulys Chacin LAD: Walker Buehler | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 4
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Los Angeles | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Starting pitchers: MIL: TBA LAD: Rich Hill | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 5
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Los Angeles | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Starting pitchers: MIL: TBA LAD: TBA | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Composite line score
2018 NLCS (1–1): Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers are tied.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 17 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Milwaukee Brewers | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 18 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Total attendance: 87,520 Average attendance: 43,760 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
See also
References
- ↑ Playoff bracket set as Brewers, Dodgers win. MLB.com. Retrieved on October 1, 2018.
- ↑ "Boxscore: Dodgers vs. Brewers, Game 1". MLB.com. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
- ↑ "Boxscore: Dodgers vs. Brewers, Game 2". MLB.com. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- ↑ McCalvy, Adam (October 12, 2018). "Crew holds off LA in G1 for 12th straight victory". mlb.com. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
- ↑ Kelly, Matt; Randhawa, Manny (October 12, 2018). "Every pitcher who went deep in postseason". MLB.com. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- ↑ Gurnick, Ken (October 13, 2018). "Turner's heroics help Dodgers knot NLCS, 1-1". mlb.com. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- ↑ https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIL/2018-schedule-scores.shtml. Missing or empty
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Further reading
- "Gerry Davis, Joe West crew chiefs for league championships". Boston.com. AP. October 11, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.