Breaking down the Brewers’ Game 2 loss to the Dodgers in the NLCS
JR Radcliffe and Dominique Yates recap the Brewers’ 5-1 loss to the Dodgers to fall to 0-2 in the NLCS.
Though it does happen occasionally, instances of a team rallying from a 2-0 deficit to win a seven-game MLB playoff series are few and far between, especially when those two losses take place at home.
That’s the history Milwaukee Brewers will need to overcome now that they’re down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
Here are a few facts and figures that have made the challenge an uphill climb:
The Brewers have matched their fewest number of hits through four games … ever
In the regular season, Milwaukee has gone a stretch of four games collecting no more than 14 hits just once (according to a Stathead search), a streak from April 26 to April 29 in 2018 when the team went 0-4.
Over the past four playoff games, Milwaukee has matched that total, collecting 14 hits, including five over two games in the series with the Dodgers.
The good news is that six of those came in Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Chicago Cubs, allowing the Brewers to win that game, 3-1, and the series.
Otherwise, they had three hits in a 6-0 loss in Game 4 to Chicago and then two hits in a 2-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 1 before three hits in Game 2.
Four of the hits have been solo home runs.
The Brewers did have a four-game stretch of only 15 hits from April 3 to April 6 in 2021, when the club went 1-3 and another run of 15 hits from May 4 to May 6 (including a doubleheader) in 2011.
Ironically enough, the 2011, 2018 and 2021 teams, along with the 2025 team, are among the best in franchise history.
Christian Yelich is struggling mightily and has struggled overall in the playoffs
Since doubling leading off Game 3 of the NLDS, the Brewers’ Christian Yelich has gone 0-for-17 with 10 groundouts and five strikeouts. He’s walked three times.
Yelich hasn’t driven in a run in this postseason and hasn’t had an RBI since Game 7 of the NLCS in 2018, when his home run gave the Brewers the lead. He has played in 15 postseason games since then without driving in a run, going 14-for-58 (.241) with three extra-base hits, all doubles.
In his postseason career, Yelich is a .223 hitter with a .684 OPS. He has two homers, three RBIs and four doubles.
The Brewers could stand to hit more homers in the postseason
Hand in hand with Yelich’s playoff power drought has been the team’s inability to hit home runs at large. The Brewers have played 29 games since that 2018 season (when their run of playoff appearances began), and they’ve hit exactly 29 homers in those games (an even one per game).
That’s a pretty low volume per game. Among teams with double-digit playoff games since 2018 (21 teams total), only the Cleveland Guardians (20 homers in 25 games), New York Mets (16 homers in 16 games), Detroit Tigers (nine homers in 15 games), St. Louis Cardinals (nine homers in 15 games) and Minnesota Twins (11 homers in 11 games) have equal or lesser marks per game.
The Brewers have a .667 OPS in postseason games since 2018, which ranks 12th among teams with double-digit playoff games. The Seattle Mariners marginally rank 13th, also with .667, and oddly enough, the Atlanta Braves are next with .666.
Does it feel like the Brewers are chasing pitches more in the playoffs? You’re right.
One of the skills that made the Brewers such a difficult team to slow down was their penchant for patience.
At 25.5%, they were tied for most patient in baseball with the Yankees during the regular season in terms of “chase,” meaning they only swung at a little more than a quarter of the pitches outside the strike zone.
It’s a much smaller sample in the playoffs, but the Brewers are chasing 29% of pitches in the postseason. That may not seem all too dramatic, but 29% in the regular season would have been tied with a couple other teams for one of the top-10 teams in chase rate.
A chase rate, by the way, doesn’t always correlate to greatness; playoff contenders like the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies were all top-five teams in chase in 2025 during the regular season. The Cubs and Dodgers were among the lowest percentages with Milwaukee and the Yankees. But this does represent a departure from the Brewers’ typical plate discipline.
The Brewers are still walking at the same rate they were in the regular season, though they only drew one walk over 17 innings against Dodgers starting pitchers in the first two games of the NLCS. But more than increasing a likelihood for a walk, a higher chase rate can reduce the number of hittable pitches a batter sees in an at-bat.