Brewers 6, Dodgers 4 – 2026 NLCS Game 4: Dreams of a 3-peat end unceremoniously with a clean and deserved sweep

Chad Moriyama 10/15/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Yesterday was the first figurative must-win game of the 2026 NLCS, but Game 4 was the first literal must-win game, as the Dodgers came into it with the worst deficit possible of 3-0 to the Brewers. After some further frustration at the game’s outset for the bats, Andy Pages started the scoring and Shohei Ohtani finally delivered a big blow to put the Dodgers in front early. Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow started out ideally before the walks caught up with him and the Brewers chipped away at the lead. Against the Dodgers pen, they ended up taking the lead in the middle innings, and then hung onto it until the end in a 6-4 season-ending loss.

It was a great three-year run.

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This game was the second in a row that the Dodgers had a pitching advantage on paper, as Tyler Glasnow took the bump against Shane Drohan as an opener and Dustin May as a bulk guy. Of course, that advantage was effectively meaningless yesterday, and that’s baseball.

Also baseball? Glasnow doing enough to make that advantage on paper a real thing early on (emphasis on early on) while an opener in Drohan struggled with his command and a back-end starter bulk guy in May gave up a big homer.

Glasnow cruises early, Shohei finally gets his big swing

As mentioned, Glasnow cruised early and was perfect through three innings, striking out six and taking just 34 pitches.

On the other end, Drohan faced almost immediate trouble in the 1st, issuing back-to-back one-out walks to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Will Smith then got ahead in the count 3-1 and got a fastball over the plate, but took a weirdly defensive swing and grounded into a double play to end that chance.

Just frustrating.

They got another chance in the 2nd and took advantage this time. Kyle Tucker started by singling off Drohan to knock him out of the game as Pat Murphy went to Dustin May. Didn’t matter to Teoscar Hernandez, who singled to corner the runners with nobody out. Dave Roberts then pinch-hit Max Muncy for Miguel Rojas before he even got a plate appearance and struck out for him (he then went to third and Enrique Hernandez went to second).

Thankfully, Andy Pages followed and was allowed to hit this time, singling up the middle to make it 1-0 Dodgers.

After the second out was recorded, Shohei Ohtani finally made the huge swing he was looking for, pummeling a ball to right for a three-run shot to make it 4-0 Dodgers.

This should’ve been the moment for this team if they had any chance.

After May got the last out of the 2nd, he rebounded with a clean 3rd, and gave up just a one-out single in the 4th to buy the Brewers time to get back into the game.

Glasnow falters and the bullpen capitulates

The slow march to doom started in the 4th, as Glasnow retired the lead-off hitter to give him 10 in a row, then issued a walk to Brice Turang (during which Smith burned a challenge). That was followed by back-to-back ground-rule doubles from William Contreras and Jake Bauers to plate a pair of runs and cut the lead to 4-2 Dodgers.

Glasnow got a pair of grounders to stop the bleeding there, but you could feel it was slowly slipping away. Well, it unraveled in the 5th, as another one-out walk (this one to Sal Frelick) was followed by a stolen base and then a single from David Hamilton to score Frelich and make it 4-3 Dodgers.

That would be it for Glasnow, who turned in yet another disappointing start for this Dodgers rotation: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 79 Pitches.

Evan Phillips entered looking to put out the fire and instead added to it. After a lineout, Hamilton stole second, he fell behind Turant 3-0 before intentionally walking him, then unintentionally walked Contreras to load things up.

Dave turned to Alex Vesia, who walked Bauers to force the tying run in at 4-4 before getting the final out of the 5th. I was surprised to see Vesia there instead of Tanner Scott because Vesia has always had trouble throwing strikes and putting him in a situation where he couldn’t afford a walk seemed like tempting fate.

Well that might not have mattered, as Scott entered in the 6th and gave up a homer to Garrett Mitchell to make it 5-4 Brewers with the game truly flipped.

Scott got the next three, but … yeah. Nothing good and nothing really to do about it.

Appropriately more missed chances to end the season

Almost amusingly, Edwin Diaz entered for the 7th for the first time all series. He responded by getting six in a row to get them through the 8th.

Even that sentiment didn’t last long.

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The Brewers pen then really started to work in the 5th, as JoJo Romero got a clean frame and continued in the 6th. He gave up a one-out double to Tucker that got to third on a groundout, but that was it.

The Dodgers did get a chance in the 7th, as Aaron Ashby entered and gave up a lead-off double to Andy Pages, who was sacrificed to third by Enrique. However, Shohei struck out and Mookie Betts grounded out to end that threat almost predictably at this point.

The 8th saw another shot against Ashby, as he allowed a one-out double to Will Smith and he got to third when Frelick couldn’t field it cleanly (Contreras also burned a challenge).

But the Dodgers did it again, as Tucker flew out to shallow center and Teoscar Hernandez struck out to end that chance.

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Unfortunately, Diaz came back out for the 9th, and his consecutive batters retired streak ended abruptly at eight when David Hamilton homered to make it 6-4 Brewers (Will also burned their last challenge in the frame).

Surprisingly, Ashby came out and got the three-inning save with a clean 9th to end the Dodgers season.

About right.

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A clean sweep for the Brewers in the NLCS and a deserved one. Just outplayed in the box, on the mound, and in the field. Better team won.

I would say see you guys next year, but Dustin already has content planned for tomorrow, so take your frustrations out on consuming our content.

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