Dodgers shut out by Brewers’ bullpen again, fall behind 2-0 in NLCS

MILWAUKEE — Billboards around town promote the Milwaukee Brewers with the slogan “Win Our Way.”

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The Dodgers tried. It didn’t work.

They scored four runs without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position – or hitting a home run. But the Brewers outhit them 12-3 and the final 15 Dodgers batters were retired in order as the Brewers pulled away to a 7-4 victory on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

“They pitched well and they hit good,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “That’s the name of the game, and they did it better than us today.”

They did it twice in Milwaukee. The best-of-seven series now heads back to Los Angeles with the Dodgers trailing 2-0. Game 3 is Wednesday at 5 p.m. with Blake Snell scheduled to start for the Dodgers.

“Grind. Win one game at a time, one pitch at a time,” Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said. “The mindset can’t really change. We can’t add more pressure. There’s already enough as it is. Keep it simple. One pitch at a time. Figure out a way to get a hit.”

Hits have played hard to get for the Dodgers this postseason. Through six games against the Atlanta Braves and Brewers, they are batting .193 (37 for 192) as a team and, most costly, 2 for 26 (.077) with runners in scoring position.

“I don’t have an answer why,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I know that they’ve got good arms. So do we. I think they’re just finding ways to win pitches better than we are. Sometimes you’ve got to find a way to get a base hit and those guys – there’s a lot of balls that weren’t hit hard tonight but found the outfield grass. That’s hitting.”

The Dodgers found ways to score without hitting early in Game 2.

The pesky, opportunistic Dodgers scored a run in the first inning without a hit. Betts drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on Freddie Freeman’s slow roller then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Teoscar Hernandez.

They scored again in the third on a pair of singles and a wild pickoff throw by Brewers starting pitcher Logan Henderson, who was more effective throwing home than he was to first base.

That came up again in the fifth inning. Kyle Tucker led off with a double and Tommy Edman tried to bunt him to third – you wanted bunts. Henderson did him one better, fielding the ball and throwing wildly to first base. Tucker scored on Henderson’s second error and Edman wound up scoring on a close play at the plate (confirmed by replay) on a sacrifice fly by Freeman.

Each of the runs either gave the Dodgers the lead or tied the score as the two teams played in a phone booth, never straying more than a run apart.

That was true, in part, because Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was not sharp. He threw 75 pitches to get just two outs into the third inning. The Brewers swung at 33 of those pitches and only missed four times.

“He wasn’t as precise as he normally is,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “I thought they did a really good job, not expanding out of the zone, taking advantage, especially up the middle.”

Two key decisions by Smith could have changed things, though.

On a 2-and-2 pitch to Brice Turang in the first inning, Yamamoto seemed to hit the outside corner with a cutter for strike three – or he didn’t. That was the call by home plate umpire Chris Segal. It might have been overturned by ABS but Smith did not challenge.

Two pitches later, Turang doubled. William Contreras drove him in with a single.

“Yeah, I went back and looked,” Smith said of the questionable call. “I don’t know if it clipped it or whatever. It was kind of early in the game. We kind of had him on the ropes where we could just get him out there.

“The walk one was a bummer but I guess it happens. It’s baseball.”

That came two innings later. The Brewers had a runner at second with one out when Yamamoto again appeared to hit the outside corner with a splitter on a full count to Turang. Segal called it a ball and Yamamoto appeared to gesture toward Smith that he wanted to challenge. Smith didn’t.

“That one was a splitter. It actually cut back a little bit,” Smith said. “I just saw it out (of the strike zone) and didn’t know if it came back enough or not.”

Two batters later, Jake Bauers won a 12-pitch battle with Yamamoto – the longest plate appearance against Yamamoto this season – fouling off six consecutive pitches before drawing a walk to load the bases.

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“I was trying to work on the edge of the zone,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter. “And some pitches it was really good but he just stayed on it. He did a good job.”

Two pitches later, Christian Yelich stroked a two-run single through the middle, the first base hit off of a Yamamoto curveball since Aug. 27 and the last pitch Yamamoto would throw in the game.

“That changed the game,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Bauers’ walk, adding that he was told the confrontation lasted seven minutes. “You think about that and what it does to a pitcher. He can get through an inning in less than seven minutes and he does all the time. He’s one of the best pitchers in the land. It was a great at-bat. I think a turning point, I really do.”

It started the Dodgers’ bullpen turning.

Roberts turned to Alex Vesia to finish off the third and gave the ball to Roki Sasaki for a scoreless fourth.

But then he took it away from the converted starter after just one inning and gave it to Kris Bubic with two lefties coming up in the fifth. In between them was Contreras and he tied the score with a solo home run. The Dodgers never regained a lead.

“For me, I felt Bubic had four out of five left-handed hitters (coming up), and that’s a perfect spot for him,” Roberts said. “I knew they weren’t going to hit for them. You have Roki for an inning, and then you still have a guy – in my opinion, you’ve got a great spot for Bubic.

“That’s a decision I made, and we just didn’t – again, that’s his lane to be able to go out there and throw up a zero.”

The Brewers finally did things their way in the sixth inning against Brock Stewart.

He hit No. 9 hitter David Hamilton with a pitch. Hamilton went to second when Freeman mishandled a pickoff throw from Stewart and third on a ground out by Jackson Chourio. After an intentional walk of Turang, Contreras collected his third RBI of the game with a single to left field.

They did it again in the eighth against Edgardo Henriquez. Hamilton led off with a single, stole second and went to third on a ground out. Turang drove him in with an RBI single, giving the Brewers the first two-run lead for either team in this series. When Bauers drove in another run with a single, it gave the Brewers their first three-run lead this postseason.

Left to their own devices, the Dodgers couldn’t create another scoring opportunity. The final 15 batters went down in order against Brewers relievers Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby.

“They all throw 100 (mph) from different angles,” Freeman said.

The five perfect innings in relief are a postseason record. In winning the first two games of the NLCS, the Brewers’ bullpen has pitched 9⅔ scoreless innings.

“They attack hitters. They throw strikes. They’ve got good stuff. They throw hard,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “We just got to do a better job.

“I mean, they threw, the last two days, the same pitchers beside the starters. So we know what we’re gonna get during the games. They trust those guys. So that’s the guys that we’re gonna get.”

The Dodgers do not face elimination yet. But they must win two out of three at home in order to avoid it.

“We’ve got to find a way to get hits. That’s really it,” Betts repeated.

“They’re a really good ballclub. Really good arms. They’re swinging it. They’re playing really well. We have to come and be ready to go. There’s no secrets. We’re playing the game the same way. We’ve just got to find a way to get those hits.”

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