By admin 
This isn’t David vs. Goliath.
This isn’t some underdog story.
The National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers is a heavyweight matchup.
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It’s a battle between the two best teams in Major League Baseball.
On Sunday, the Dodgers and Brewers kick off their NLCS rematch in what has the makings of an instant-classic.
Both teams have top-of-the-line aces. Both teams have elite bullpens. And both teams have the type of offensive players who can change a game with one swing of the bat.
The Brewers earned baseball’s No. 1 seed after winning a franchise-record 103 games. They beat the Dodgers four out of seven times this year, including taking three of four in LA just two months ago.
The Brewers also enter this series with plenty of momentum after taking down the San Diego Padres, arguably baseball’s third-best team at this point in the year.
Despite the Dodgers sweeping the Brewers in last year’s NLCS, they can’t overlook them this time around.
Here are a few reasons why.
1. The Two Aces
The top of the Brewers rotation is as good as any in baseball.
Jacob Misiorowski is the runaway favorite for the NL’s Cy Young award after going 16-5 with a league-best 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts over 174.2 innings.
He’s as unhittable as a pitcher can be, with an average fastball velocity of 100.6 mph. Opposing batters hit just .157 against him this season.
Behind Misiorowski is Logan Henderson, a 24-year-old rising star who went 11-3 with a 2.47 ERA and 110 strikeouts over 98.1 innings this season. His fastball sits at just 93.1 mph, but he still strikes out a ton of batters and rarely gives up a free base.
Misiorowski and Henderson will both pitch at least twice in an extended series. They could single-handedly win games for Milwaukee.
2. An Elite Bullpen
Behind the starting rotation is the National League’s best bullpen.
The Brewers bullpen had a 3.40 ERA this year, which led the NL (for reference, the Dodgers had a 3.74 ERA). In the NL Division Series against the Padres, they allowed just one earned run for a 0.47 ERA.
Trevor Megill is one of the game’s best closers. Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby can hit triple digits. Antonio Senzatela, JoJo Romero and DL Hall all took down huge outs in the most recent series.
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This bullpen can beat a team in multiple ways. The Dodgers hitters will have their hands full all series long.
3. The Experience
The Brewers are one of baseball’s youngest teams, with an average age of 27.5.
However, this team has experience winning, and has now made the NLCS in back-to-back postseasons.
Before last year, the Brewers had lost in the wild-card round in consecutive years. Their last time making the NLCS was 2018, when they lost to the Dodgers in seven games.
This Brewers roster now knows what it’s like to play at the highest level. They know what it takes to win.
Their series against the Padres had three one-run games. The Brewers never led by more than two runs.
That experience matters in October. And it could be what helps the Brewers finally reach the World Series for the first time since 1982.
“They have the best record in baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said on Saturday. “They have that for a reason. They’ve got home-field advantage. So we’ve got to play our best baseball. They’re certainly not afraid of us. They’ve got the guy that’s going to win the Cy Young in the National League starting Game 1.
“So we got our work cut out.”
Yes the Dodgers do.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/dodgers/onsi as Why the Dodgers Can’t Overlook the Brewers in the NLCS.
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This story was originally published October 11, 2026 at 11:00 AM.