The Brewers' franchise-record season ends with a 5–1 defeat and a four-game NLCS sweep by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Milwaukee Brewers 1 · Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Game date: Oct 17, 2025 · America/Chicago
Published: Oct 13, 2026
Professional · Baseball · MLB
LOS ANGELES: The Milwaukee Brewers won more regular-season games than any team in franchise history.
They defeated their biggest divisional rival in October.
They reached the National League Championship Series.
And then they encountered Shohei Ohtani.
The Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated Milwaukee with a 5–1 victory Friday night at Dodger Stadium, completing a four-game sweep and sending the Brewers into an offseason filled with both pride and disappointment.
Ohtani delivered a historic performance, combining dominant pitching with three home runs.
For Milwaukee, the result was especially painful because the club had entered October with genuine championship ambitions.
The strongest regular season in club history
Milwaukee completed 2025 with 97 victories.
The total established a franchise record and gave the Brewers the best record in Major League Baseball.
The achievement followed an unfavorable start.
Milwaukee opened 0–4.
The club eventually recovered through several sustained winning stretches, including a franchise-record 14-game streak in August.
Its success was built around pitching depth, defensive execution and contributions throughout the lineup.
Those strengths produced another NL Central title.
Chicago provides the October breakthrough
The Brewers entered the postseason carrying six consecutive series losses in October.
Their Division Series matchup with the Cubs provided an opportunity to reverse that trend.
Milwaukee won the first two games.
Chicago responded with two victories at Wrigley Field.
The Brewers then won Game 5 at American Family Field, advancing to the NLCS.
The victory over the Cubs was significant because of the rivalry and Craig Counsell's move from Milwaukee to Chicago.
It also provided Milwaukee with its first postseason series victory in several years.
But the Dodgers represented a different challenge.
Los Angeles dominates
Milwaukee had swept all six regular-season meetings against Los Angeles.
Those results created optimism, but they offered no protection once the championship series began.
The Dodgers won the first three games.
Game 4 became an elimination contest.
Ohtani ensured there would be no fifth game.
His extraordinary combination of power and pitching overwhelmed Milwaukee.
The Brewers managed one run.
Los Angeles scored five.
The sweep was complete.
The difference between September and October
Milwaukee's defeat illustrates one of baseball's harshest realities.
The best regular-season team does not automatically become the postseason champion.
A 162-game schedule rewards consistency, depth and the ability to recover from poor stretches.
A short series rewards immediate execution.
The Brewers succeeded at the first assignment.
Against Los Angeles, they failed at the second.
The season still deserves recognition
Milwaukee's postseason ending was disappointing, but the organization accomplished significant goals.
It won 97 games.
It secured another division championship.
It defeated Chicago in the NLDS.
And it advanced to the final four teams competing for the World Series.
The Brewers will now examine how to close the gap between their regular-season success and postseason performance.
Their 2025 season will be remembered for extraordinary winning streaks and a franchise record.
It will also be remembered for the night Ohtani ended it.
LOS ANGELES — Milwaukee needed only one inning to take back the lead. By the end of the night, the Brewers had taken something considerably larger from the Dodgers: nearly all their room for error.
DOPE Sports Network Staff · Oct 14, 2026
William Contreras had already answered one Dodgers lead when he stepped into the middle of another Milwaukee comeback. His fifth-inning home run brought the Brewers even. His sixth-inning single put them ahead. By the time Aaron Ashby recorded the final out, Los Angeles had exhausted eight pitchers without finding a way to stop Milwaukee from coming back.
DOPE Sports Network Staff · Oct 14, 2026
Milwaukee's four relievers in NLCS Game 2 allowed the Dodgers no hits and no walks over five innings. That line is the simplest way to locate the difference between a game the Brewers repeatedly had to repair and a finish they could control. Once the bullpen took responsibility for the remaining outs, Los Angeles stopped producing baserunners through either of those routes.
.jpg){kind=link}