Contreras breaks out as Brewers beat Dodgers 4-1

Box Score

The Brewers are a struggling offensive team, and today doesn’t really change that. But Milwaukee got a couple of two-run homers today—one from a very encouraging source—and that’s often going to be all you need when Jacob Misiorowski is on the mound. Indeed, Misiorowski and a couple of Brewer relievers largely shut down the high-powered (but also struggling) Dodger offense on their way to what felt like a pretty comfortable 4-1 victory.

Justin Wrobleski, the 2026 All-Star but who was coming off three consecutive rough outings, threw a scoreless top of the first despite a two-out single from Andrew Vaughn. In the bottom of the inning, Misiorowski went three-up three-down via two popouts to Vaughn at third and a fly ball to right field.

With two outs in the top of the second, William Contreras finally broke a duck that went back a week (after singling in his last at-bat last Saturday, Contreras was 0-for-his-last-20 with six walks) with a solid single to left. Two pitches later, the Brewers actually paid it off when Joey Ortiz homered on a high fly ball just beyond the reach of Teoscar Hernández for a two-run homer. It was Ortiz’s sixth of the season, and his renaissance continues. Jonathan Ornelas followed with his first at-bat as a Brewer, but grounded out to end the inning.

Misiorowski, working with an early lead, followed up his perfect top of the first with another in the second, this time with a couple of strikeouts. The Dodgers got their first baserunner of the game with one out in the bottom of the third when Alex Call reached on an infield single. Hunter Feduccia popped out for the second out, but Shohei Ohtani got a hard grounder past Gary Sánchez at first and into the right-field corner. Call scored from first, and Ohtani ended up at third with a triple. Freddie Freeman, up next, hit a ball down the left-field line, but Jackson Chourio made a nice running catch to end the inning with the score 2-1.

Jake Bauers drew a leadoff walk in the second. After Sánchez lined out and Christian Yelich struck out, it looked like nothing would come of it. But Contreras, who had just broken his long hitless streak a couple innings earlier, got a hold of a 1-2 pitch that was a couple inches below the zone and golfed it over the wall in left for a two-out, two-run homer. Huge! The Brewers took a 4-1 lead.

Misiorowski got the first out of the bottom of the fourth when Andy Pages hit a ground ball to third and Andrew Vaughn (huh) made a nice sliding play and Gary Sánchez (what) made a nice dig at first to secure the throw. A couple of fly balls to center later, and Miz had a nice shutdown inning.

After a quick top of the fourth for Wrobleski, things got a little hairy in the bottom of the inning. Misiorowski started the inning by getting a pop out from Tommy Edman, but Hernández, Call, and Feduccia hit back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out for the two Hall of Famers at the top of the Dodger order. But after a quick visit from Chris Hook, Miz locked in; he struck out Ohtani on three pitches, then got Freeman swinging at a nasty slider to end the inning with no runs crossing the plate.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Bauers got a hold of a ball but hit it to dead center where it was caught just in front of the wall by Pages. With two outs, Sánchez (immediately after an incredibly bad blown challenge) was hit by a pitch (and replaced by pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge) and Yelich also hit a ball hard—I think Wrobleski thought it was gone—but Hernádez caught it on the warning track in left for the third out. More bad luck for Yelich.

Misiorowski started the sixth with 80 pitches. Max Muncy drew a one-out walk, but Misiorowski didn’t have any other trouble. At 98 pitches, Miz’s day was over. He was a little less efficient than usual and didn’t have quite as many strikeouts, but he did a fantastic job working out of trouble; his final line was six innings, five hits, one walk, one run, and six strikeouts.

Jonathan Hernández relieved Wrobleski in the seventh and had a 1-2-3 inning against the bottom of the Brewer lineup. Antonio Senzatela was the first man out of the Brewer bullpen and, like Hernández, had no problem with the bottom of the Dodger order.

With one out in the eighth, Lara knocked a base hit into left, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. After a David Hamilton strikeout, Bauers was intentionally walked, at which point the Brewers sent Garrett Mitchell to pinch-hit for Lockridge. Mitchell struck out looking—the last pitch was not a strike, but Mitchell didn’t want to use the Brewers’ last challenge, and the inning ended.

With Abner Uribe on the injured list and Trevor Megill having pitched four times in the last five days, it was a bit of a mystery how the Brewers would piece together the end of the game with their bullpen. For the top of the Dodger order in the bottom of the eighth, with lefties Ohtani and Freeman coming up, it made a lot of sense that Aaron Ashby was the choice. It worked: Ohtani struck out, Freeman grounded out to first, and Pages chased a 3-2 pitch and hit a weak grounder to second for an easy inning.

Hernández was back out for his third inning of work in the top of the ninth as the Brewers looked for a little more insurance. They did not find it: Yelich, Contreras, and Ortiz went down in order, though Contreras hit a ball over 100 mph for the third time in the game.

After his good eighth inning, the Brewers stuck with Ashby in the ninth to neutralize Muncy. Dave Roberts chose to pinch-hit for Muncy instead of have him face the lefty, and the pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas grounded out. Mookie Betts got a changeup right down the middle and hit it hard, but Mitchell caught it on the warning track in center for out number two. Edman was the Dodgers’ last chance, and he kept the game alive by drawing a walk. After a mound visit and with Chad Patrick ready in the bullpen, the Brewers chose to stick with Ashby to face lefty-masher Hernández; he hit what should’ve been the game’s last out, but Ornelas bobbled Hernández’s ground ball, Hernández beat the throw, and the Dodgers brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Alex Call.

Thankfully, Ashby struck Call out on three pitches, and the game was over. It got a little scary there at the end, but they got it.

The Brewer offense still wasn’t very good and managed only five hits, but thankfully because of good pitching and a struggling offense in the opposite dugout, too, Milwaukee built their lead early and never really looked in all that much danger of losing it. Contreras was the offensive hero in what was a badly, badly needed good game at the plate; he went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and two runs scored, and he hit the ball hard three out of four times. Ortiz had the team’s other big hit, his second-inning two-run homer.

The pitching staff was great. Misiorowski didn’t have his best stuff but held the Dodgers to one run, and Senzatela and Ashby did the rest.

The series concludes tomorrow afternoon, a 3:10 p.m. game in which the Brewers have the chance to win a third game in Los Angeles and largely salvage what looked like was going to be a disastrous road trip. In a sort of weird trade deadline what-if game, Logan Henderson faces off with Tarik Skubal.