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For the second straight season, the Milwaukee Brewers handled their business effectively at Dodger Stadium by winning three of four games after sweeping a series there in 2025.
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Now the world will await a possible postseason showdown to see if the Brewers’ success in Los Angeles equates to October this year. It certainly didn’t last season when the Dodgers breezed past the Brewers in a four-game sweep in the NLCS.
Like last season, Milwaukee’s strong series in Los Angeles occurred in the summer. Last year, the two met in the second series after the All-Star break. This time it was a month after the break. Both series occurred during a rare summer swoon for the Dodgers.
How Brewers won three games in Los Angeles
Similar to many teams with the top record in their league, an opponent has to limit mistakes. This weekend, the Brewers capitalized in each of their three wins.
In the series opener on Aug. 13, the Brewers scored four runs in the ninth off Edwin Diaz, whose ERA is 10.66 and whose struggles mirror his first season with the Mets in 2019.
Instead of home runs, the Brewers won on singles by Joey Ortiz, David Hamilton, Jackson Chourio, and Garrett Mitchell — a combination of two players developed by the Brewers and two players acquired in trades with AL East teams. Hamilton came over from the Red Sox alongside Kyle Harrison in the Caleb Durbin trade in February.
After nearly mounting a comeback against Diaz on Aug. 14, the Brewers sent Jacob Misorowski to the mound, and while he was not dominant in terms of strikeouts, “The Miz” allowed one run in six innings.
His outing was highlighted by the first six pitches to Shohei Ohtani in the first inning being thrown at 102.3 mph or faster, and using three different pitches to get a strikeout on Ohtani in the fifth.
A day later, the Brewers faced Tarik Skubal and pitched Logan Henderson. An interesting angle heading into the matchup was that Henderson is considered to be someone the Tigers asked for when talking to the Brewers about a Skubal trade.
Instead, Henderson wound up outpitching Skubal, and the Brewers did enough to knock the two-time Cy Young award winner out after six innings, winning 6-2.
Henderson was not on the Brewers’ roster that produced a 3.71 ERA in the four-game sweep in the NLCS, but the case can be made that he is enjoying a better season than Skubal. Henderson is only at 63 1/3 innings, but he owns a better ERA and WHIP than Skubal with comparable strikeout rates.
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Will this translate into playoff success?
Maybe not.
There are plenty of instances of a team experiencing regular-season prosperity against an opponent only to lose in the playoffs. Last year, the Brewers outscored the Dodgers 31-16 while winning all six regular-season meetings, only to go winless in the NLCS.
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Other notable instances of this phenomenon include the 1988 Mets dominating the Dodgers before falling in a seven-game NLCS. In 2007, the Yankees won all six against Cleveland and were sent home in four games during the ALDS in manager Joe Torre’s final season.
Last year, the Brewers held home-field advantage since the Dodgers actually entered the playoffs as a 93-win wild card team, and it still did not matter.
So fans might be wondering, why should we think this year will be different, even with another successful regular season against the Dodgers?
“Whatever happens in October is whatever happens, but I think the anticipation is we’re going to have to get through these guys,” first baseman Jake Bauers told reporters. “We can play with them, and if we execute, we can beat them.”
Bauers develops into legit middle of the order threat
In the ill-fated 2023 season, the Yankees used Bauers for 84 games, and it resulted in a .202 average with 12 homers and 30 RBIs.
Now he is hitting ahead of star Christian Yelich in a Brewers lineup that is a top-ten offense in many categories but last in baseball with 113 homers.
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It was easy to see why the Yankees moved on by trading him to Milwaukee for a pair of minor leaguers. Sometimes, it takes a while for players to blossom, and this is what is occurring with Bauers, who batted .199 and .235 in his first two seasons with Milwaukee.
This year, he is a .275 hitter and has already set career highs with 21 homers and 70 RBIs. Those standard numbers track with some of the advanced numbers of 92.5 average exit velocity, 52.8% hard-hit rate, along with a .304 average on fastballs.
What’s next for the Brewers?
The Brewers exited Dodger Stadium and left the Dodgers in a state of consternation for their shaky performances in the past month. They also left Chavez Ravine with a 2 1/2-game lead over the Braves for the NL’s best record and a five-game lead over the Cubs in the NL Central.
The Brewers will get chances to widen their lead on both fronts by the end of the month. After hosting the Mariners, they host the Braves and then on Aug. 31-Sept. 3 the Brewers visit the Cubs, who lost Dansby Swanson to the IL.
Milwaukee is in good shape already. It will be interesting to see if they can reach 100 wins for the first time in team history, but the real interest will be how the Brewers fare in the postseason, especially if they follow up this weekend by beating the Dodgers.
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This story was originally published August 17, 2026 at 3:21 PM.