Brewers 5, Dodgers 4: Dave Roberts apparently didn’t think the series was that important as Edwin Diaz was allowed to blow again

Chad Moriyama 08/13/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The four-game set with the Brewers was hyped even by Dave Roberts as an important one that the Dodgers wanted to win, though his actions would throw that into doubt.

It began as an expected tightly-contested affair, as they took an early lead due to Roki Sasaki not having command of anything. However, he minimized the damage and that bought enough time for Max Muncy to come up with a clutch pinch-hit homer that gave him the career Dodger Stadium homer lead in dramatic fashion. The pen then hung on for dear life for a couple innings before Edwin Diaz imploded yet again and the Brewers put up a three-run 9th to give them a 5-4 victory.

Idiotic.

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After having a great run to this point after the All-Star break, Roki Sasaki finally had something of a clunker, though he did somehow minimize the damage.

He worked around a two-out walk in the 1st, which would become a trend, and also a lead-off single in the 2nd. A one-out walk in the 3rd put him in more trouble, but Ben Rortvedt got a rare caught stealing to allow him to face the minimum.

All of that erraticness came home to roost in the 4th. A lead-off single was followed by a fortunate flyout and then a walk and a single to load things up. He then got on the verge of escape with a strikeout, but proceeded to walk Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton to force two runs in before getting another strikeout to escape complete disaster. 2-0 Brewers.

He did rebound a bit to face the minimum in both the 5th and 6th innings, the former thanks to a stellar diving play from his knees by Enrique Hernandez, and the latter thanks to a single being erased by a double play.

Look, it could’ve been worse, a lot worse: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 2 K, 101 Pitches.

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That gave the Dodgers at least some chance as the game was within reach despite the bats getting off to a rough start against Shane Drohan.

While Shohei Ohtani led the game off with a double, Drohan left him standing at second to end the 1st. He then faced the minimum in the 2nd thanks to a double play erasing a lead-off single, and after a clean 3rd, the only thing that prevented a clean 4th was a one-out error.

They got another shot at something in the 5th when Miguel Rojas led off with walk and got to second on a groundout, then with two down a Ben Rortvedt single to left scored him when William Contreras fortunately dropped the throw at home. The rally ended there, but it was now 2-1 Brewers.

Drohan continued in the 6th, but issued a one-out walk to Tommy Edman, who stole second, and then Freddie Freeman battled back from 0-2 to draw a dramatic walk on a challenge to put a pair on and chase Drohan from the game.

That led to Antonio Senzatela entering, and he started with a strikeout that put him on the verge of escape. However, Max Muncy pinch-hit and worked the count full before unleashing a hellacious dong on a 100 MPH fastball up for a game-turning three-run shot to make it 4-2 Dodgers.

Perhaps fittingly with Eric Karros on the call and enthusiastically congratulating him, Max became the all-time Dodger Stadium home run leader.

After Senzatela got the last out of the 6th, DL Hall cruised through the 7th and the 8th to close the book on them.

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The struggling Dodgers bullpen entered in the form of Jack Dreyer, and the 7th started less than ideally. A single was followed by a wild pitch, which gave them a runner in scoring position with nobody down. However, the Brewers continued trying to bunt for whatever reason and Dreyer got a strikeout. That seemed to settle him in, as he then got a flyout and another strikeout by turning it up to 97 MPH.

Edgardo Henriquez started the 8th with a strikeout but then issued a walk, which has been an issue for the pen. He did manage to get a flyout next, and Dave Roberts went to Tanner Scott for the left-handed Christian Yelich. Scott fell behind in the count 3-1, and Yelich got his hands in on a fastball, but Enrique made a great running catch in the corner running up against the wall for the inning-ending out.

Well, that left it up to Edwin Diaz in the 9th, who still looked an absolute mess. He started with a strikeout but then gave up four singles in a row to score two runs to tie the game at 4-4.

He “rebounded” with a strikeout to put them on the verge of escaping, and then Dave Roberts finally went to Alex Vesia.

Vesia then allowed a single to Jake Bauers to give the Brewers a 5-4 lead.

A steal and a walk reloaded the bases, but Vesia got the final out to sorta keep them in it.

Not really, though, as Trevor Megill showed what a closer looked like by getting the side in order.

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Eric Karros, man.

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NL SeedingRecordGB
Brewers75-47–
Braves73-481.5
Dodgers73-492.0

The series continues tomorrow at the same time of 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bump against Robert Gasser.

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