The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium to finish a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series. The loss ended the Dodgers' run at a third straight World Series title. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer that put Los Angeles up 4-0 in the second inning. Milwaukee came back and tied it in the fifth. In the sixth, Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell homered off reliever Tanner Scott on a full-count fastball down the middle. The Dodgers then got a runner to third in three straight innings and stranded all three. A year ago, the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the same round. Milwaukee now heads to its first World Series since 1982. It will face the winner of the ALCS between Cleveland and Tampa Bay.

Ohtani's Injuries Sank Them

The team's best player was hurt for months, and some say the Dodgers should have shut him down.

Their best player was playing hurt. Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke wrote that if you want "a single reason the Dodgers didn't three-peat, look no further than the guy who led them to their two-peat." Ohtani played through knee and biceps injuries. He hasn't pitched since July 3, and he hit under .200 this postseason. Plaschke said Ohtani "wouldn't tell the Dodgers how badly" he was hurting and that the team "suffered deeply from his stubbornness." CBS Sports writer Mike Axisa ranked Ohtani second on his blame list. "It's hard to win when your best player is this diminished," he wrote.

Others blame the team for letting him play. Times baseball columnist Bill Shaikin wrote before Game 3 that "the Dodgers failed Ohtani this summer." He said they should have shut Ohtani down for a long stretch. He also said they should drop him from the postseason roster. After Thursday's loss, Ohtani said the Brewers "exposed some of the parts of me as a player."

Roberts Got Outmanaged, Too

Critics say the manager's moves kept backfiring against a team that played small ball.

The manager kept making the wrong calls. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts kept Ohtani in the lineup. "We're listening to Shohei," he said before Game 3. In that game, Roberts sent up rookie Josue De Paula to pinch-hit with two runners in scoring position. When Milwaukee brought in a lefty, Roberts pulled De Paula for pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández. Hernández went 1-for-14 this postseason. Axisa wrote that "Roberts never adjusted his priors." Shaikin went through the same game and said Roberts' calls "all pretty much backfired on him." Roberts left starter Blake Snell in for the seventh, and Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers and Mitchell both homered that inning.

He didn't fight back with small ball. Plaschke wrote that Roberts "didn't bunt enough" and "didn't run enough." He said Roberts "seemed unprepared to fight the Brewers' small ball." Plaschke still told fans not to shout "Fire Roberts!" this winter. Roberts is under contract through 2029, according to MARCA.

The Roster Got Old, and the Big Signings Flopped

Some blame the front office for an aging lineup and two pricey free agents who didn't deliver.

This lineup is the oldest in baseball. The Dodgers' position players average 30.9 years old. MLB.com writer Sonja Chen wrote that the roster may be showing its age. Plaschke wrote that the Dodgers "were just too old, too tired, and too set in their ways to make the right adjustments." First baseman Freddie Freeman went 1-for-14 in the series. CBS Sports rated him the series' worst player by win probability added.

Their big winter signings didn't pay off. Plaschke called outfielder Kyle Tucker "a $60-million bust." He also called Tucker "a bad acquisition by Andrew Friedman," the Dodgers' president of baseball operations. He faulted the Dodgers for signing reliever Edwin Díaz, too. Chen wrote that Tucker struggled in the first year of a four-year, $240 million deal. By Spotrac's count, the Dodgers had baseball's second-highest payroll, about $339 million. The Brewers ranked 19th, at about $146 million. Sporting News writer Matt Sullivan wrote that what matters is "who is on the team and how the organization constructs a roster."

Still, the Brewers Were Just Better

The Dodgers themselves say nobody choked and the better team won.

They had the better regular season, too. The Brewers went 103-59, three games better than the Dodgers. Axisa put the Brewers first on his blame list and wrote that "the better team has played like the better team, period." Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said Milwaukee "just kept stringing together one good at-bat after another."

Nobody on the losing side will blame anyone. "There's no finger-pointing," Roberts said after the game. "We win as a team, we lose as a team, and we lost as a team." He said the Brewers "out-pitched us, they out-hit us, they played defense better." Freeman said, "They just outplayed us this series." Brewers manager Pat Murphy had his own take. "They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers," he said. "And the gamers won this week."

Where This Lands

Plaschke puts the biggest share on Ohtani's refusal to rest, while Shaikin faults the Dodgers for letting him play hurt. Axisa and Shaikin point at Roberts' Game 3 moves, and Plaschke says Roberts never answered Milwaukee's small ball. Plaschke also blames an aging lineup and Friedman's free-agent signings. Chen says the roster may be showing its age. Roberts, Freeman and Muncy say a better team beat them, and Murphy says his "gamers" earned it. The Brewers will play Cleveland or Tampa Bay in the World Series.

Sources