In a postseason that’s already producing echoes of legendary Dodgers pitching eras, the Los Angeles Dodgers have stormed to a commanding 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, thanks to a dazzling display of starting pitching and timely offense. With the series heading back to Los Angeles for Game 3, the Dodgers find themselves just two wins away from a second consecutive World Series appearance, and it’s hard not to feel the buzz around Chavez Ravine.
Game 2 in Milwaukee was all about Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The $325 million right-hander, who faced skepticism before ever throwing a pitch in Major League Baseball, delivered a postseason performance for the ages. He tossed a complete game, allowing just three hits and one run—a leadoff home run by Jackson Chourio on the very first pitch he threw. After that ominous start, Yamamoto settled in, retiring his final 14 batters and refusing to let the Brewers mount any sort of rally. He finished with seven strikeouts, one walk, and 111 pitches, 81 of them for strikes. It was, incredibly, the first complete game in MLB postseason play since Justin Verlander’s five-hitter in the 2017 ALCS, and the first by a Dodgers pitcher since José Lima’s iconic shutout in 2004.
“I reset my mind (after Chourio’s homer) and then I just focused on executing my own pitches,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter after the game. His understatement—“I was able to pitch until the end. So I really felt a sense of accomplishment”—belied the magnitude of his achievement, especially given how rare complete games have become in October baseball.
The Dodgers’ approach this postseason has been a dramatic departure from last year’s bullpen-heavy strategy. In 2024, Los Angeles starters went six innings in just two of their 16 playoff games. This year, it’s a different story. Through eight games, Dodgers starters have combined for 52.2 innings, a 1.54 ERA, 63 strikeouts, 24 hits, and just 13 walks. Seven of those eight starts have been quality outings. Manager Dave Roberts put it plainly: “Our entire team is playing the best baseball we’ve played all year. The focus, the concentration level is at the highest, and we’re peaking at the right time.”
Max Muncy, who set a Dodgers record with his 14th career postseason home run in Game 2, echoed that sentiment: “We said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us. And so far it’s been exactly that.”
It’s not just Yamamoto making headlines. Game 1 starter Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, delivered his own masterpiece, limiting the Brewers to one hit over eight shutout innings while striking out ten. The pair of Snell and Yamamoto combined for 17 innings and an average Game Score of 86.5 across the first two games, outdueling a Brewers team that led the majors with 97 regular-season wins. The Dodgers outscored Milwaukee 7-2, outhit them 18-5, and outperformed them in every major statistical category. The Brewers’ vaunted offense has managed just five hits in two games, while stars like Christian Yelich have struggled mightily—he’s now 0 for his last 13 at the plate.
“We’ve just got to play better,” Yelich admitted. “It’s not an ideal start to the series, by any means. Just have to continue to battle and find a way to get the offense going. I’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better. It’s just facts.”
The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, has done just enough, with contributions up and down the lineup. In Game 2, Teoscar Hernández erased the early deficit with his fourth home run of the postseason. Kiké Hernández singled and scored on Andy Pages’ double—Pages’ first big postseason hit after a tough stretch. Muncy’s record-setting homer extended the lead, and late RBI singles from Shohei Ohtani and Tommy Edman put the game out of reach.
For the Brewers, the series has been a nightmare, but manager Pat Murphy isn’t ready to count his team out. “You guys might have us counted out. And I understand that 90% of the teams that have been in this situation don’t win the series. But this team has been counted out a lot this year. And I think there’s some fight left in them.” History, however, is not on Milwaukee’s side: of the previous 27 teams to lose the first two games at home in a best-of-seven series, only three have come back to win—and all of those were in the World Series.
The Dodgers’ run has sparked comparisons to their storied past. The dominance of this year’s starting rotation has fans and analysts recalling the days of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. In the 1963 and 1965 World Series, those legends combined for similarly jaw-dropping numbers. Now, with Yamamoto and Snell leading the way, the 2025 Dodgers are writing their own chapter in franchise lore.
Social media has been ablaze with reactions to Yamamoto’s performance. Former player Josh Reddick, who once questioned the wisdom of giving Yamamoto such a massive contract, had his old tweet resurface as fans celebrated the right-hander’s postseason heroics. “How do you give a guy $325 million without ever throwing a pitch in MLB?” Reddick had asked. The answer, it seems, is clear now.
Pedro Martinez, Hall of Famer and pitching legend, weighed in on Blake Snell’s Game 1 outing: “I’ve been part of many postseason games, and I’ve done some great things, but in my career I haven’t seen someone do the amount of things he’s done. It gave me goosebumps to watch him. I think we can all learn from him. He deserves a lot of credit and respect.”
Even with the offense not firing on all cylinders—Ohtani, for example, is just 2 for his last 25—the Dodgers have found ways to win. Their ability to avoid disaster, as seen in the wild baserunning gaffe in Game 1, and their resilience in the face of adversity have set them apart this October. The bullpen, a source of concern, has barely been called upon thanks to the length provided by the starters. As the baton passes to Tyler Glasnow for Game 3, the Dodgers’ formula is clear: ride the arms of their aces and trust that the runs will come.
With the NLCS shifting to Los Angeles, the Dodgers are in the driver’s seat. The Brewers, meanwhile, face a daunting uphill climb. But as this postseason has already shown, baseball has a way of surprising us all. The next chapter unfolds Thursday, and the Dodgers’ faithful will be hoping the magic continues at home.
