For the second straight year and third time in the last decade, the Dodgers & Brewers are the last two teams standing in the NLCS. Milwaukee, the club with the best record in the Majors, is the only club standing in the way of Los Angeles’ third straight pennant. But this series will look very different for both clubs, especially when looking at the Game 1 starters.
Scheduled Starters & Start Times
- Game 1: Tarik Skubal (Dodgers) vs. Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers)
- Game 2: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers) vs. TBD
- Game 3: TBD vs. TBD
- Game 4: TBD vs. TBD
- Game 5: TBD vs. TBD
- Game 6: TBD vs. TBD
- Game 7: TBD vs. TBD
Games 1 & 2, in Milwaukee, will air at 7 PM CT/5 PM PT and 4 PM CT/2 PM PT, on October 11 and 12, respectively. Games 3 through 5 will be played on October 14, 15, and 16. Those games will run at 7 PM CT/5 PM PT, 8 PM CT/6 PM PT, & 8 PM CT/6 PM PT. The final two games, if necessary, would be back in Milwaukee on October 18-19 at 7 PM CT/5 PM PT.
The first two games are scheduled to air on FOX. The rest are scheduled for FS1.
A Look at the Offenses
| Stat |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Runs Scored | 801 | 832 |
| Home Runs | 204 | 154 |
| OPS | .762 | .744 |
| Whiff% | 24.1% | 24.1% |
| Hard Hit% | 39.6% | 40.3% |
We’ll get more into pitching in the next section. But it’s important to start by going over what went wrong for the Brewers last year in the NLCS. And it’s pretty straightforward.
The Brewers, as a team, slashed .118/.191/.193 with just four runs scored in the 2025 NLCS. No team can win with those numbers. As for the Dodgers, Los Angeles cracked six home runs — three of which came from Shohei Ohtani in Game 4 — and averaged almost four runs a game.
For 2026, the recipe for success, at least for the Dodgers, may look the same.
The Dodgers lead all teams in home runs (8) during the postseason, all the more impressive given that the club only played four games to this point. Max Muncy hit three of those, and Freddie Freeman and Enrique Hernandez both played big roles in the NLDS versus the Braves.
For Milwaukee, the blueprint followed was much the same as in the regular season. The Brewers walked 16 times, worked a lot of counts, didn’t look to do much against a potent Padres pitching staff, and won their way.
But can their way win out against a Dodgers team that has significantly more SLG?
A Look at the Pitching
| Stat | | |
|---|---|---|
| Starters’ ERA | 3.43 | 3.61 |
| Relievers’ ERA | 3.74 | 3.40 |
| Strikeouts | 1521 | 1544 |
| Opponents’ AVG | .218 | .221 |
| Chase%eee | 33.1% | 30.4% |
The Game 1 pitching matchup has the chance to feature three total Cy Young Awards, depending on whether Jacob Misiorowski wins the 2026 NL edition of the award (he should).
Tarik Skubal will face the Brewers for the third time this year. His first outing came way back in April when Skubal was still with the Tigers, in an outing that saw him strike out five and allow four runs over six innings. The left-hander received a return matchup on August 16, in which he struck out seven and allowed one earned run.
Against a lineup that has plenty of impact right-handed hitters, it will be interesting to see how exactly Skubal attacks the Brewers.
The same can be said for Misiorowski, who matched up just once with the Dodgers in 2026. That came on August 15, when Misiorowski struck out six over six sterling innings and diced up Los Angeles’ offense.
It’s very possible, though, that this series could come down to something that the last one did not: the bullpen. After all, Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto did more than hold their own during the 2025 NLCS, keeping the Brewers off the board for much of that series.
Starting with the Brewers, the bullpen was excellent against the Padres. Trevor Megill posted a swing-and-miss rate of nearly 40%, while Aaron Ashby tossed 5.2 scoreless innings.
As for the Dodgers, Edwin Diaz had the Braves flailing, while Roki Sasaki, Evan Phillips, and Edgardo Henriquez did a fantastic job of setting things down the wire.
Our Prediction
This series should be much closer than the 2025 NLCS. Although, given how lopsided last year’s event was, that could have varying meanings.
Still, the Dodgers come into this as our pick. It’s just going to be very difficult to beat a team that does a lot of things well, even though the Brewers have an advantage in other areas (speed, defense).
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