The Milwaukee Brewers concluded their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday with a 6-2 win at Dodger Stadium.
The Brewers took three out of four games in a critical final regular-season meeting against the Dodgers. What led to their win on Sunday?
Henderson goes the distance
While a lot of fans may have liked to see Jacob Misiorowski and Tarik Skubal go head-to-head, Brewers right-hander Logan Henderson did just fine against the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner.
Henderson provided seven innings of work and struck out six batters while allowing three hits, one earned run and a walk. Overall, he had a better outing than Skubal.
Henderson remained on the mound longer than Skubal, who pitched six innings and struck out seven batters. The latter also gave up more hits (seven) and walks (two). Henderson also earned the winning decision, his seventh of the year.
Moreover, it was Henderson’s 17th consecutive start in which he had allowed three or fewer runs, which is the third-longest streak to begin a career since 1893, according to ESPN.
Incremental offense
Instead of putting up a bunch of runs in one inning to defeat the Dodgers, the Brewers won the game with slow and steady production.
Milwaukee struck first when walks by Brandon Lockridge and William Contreras in the second inning led to the former scoring on an error by Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman. Los Angeles tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Max Muncy hit a solo home run, but Milwaukee was not fazed.
In the top of the fifth, the Brewers answered with another run thanks to a double by Jackson Chourio that set up an RBI single by Jake Bauers. The Brewers struck again in the seventh thanks to Bauers, when he hit an RBI double.
Andrew Vaughn followed up Bauers’ RBI with one of his own to give Milwaukee a 4-1 lead. In the top of the ninth, the Brewers added two more runs to take a commanding 6-1 lead, and that served as plenty of insurance.
Final thoughts
This was a crucial “put up or shut up” type of series for the Brewers. They had been bullied by Los Angeles for long enough, and they showed that they were tired of it.
As previously mentioned, this is the final meeting between these two clubs for the remainder of the regular season, and it served as a preview for what could be a series with much greater significance in October.
The difference between this series and one in the playoffs is that Milwaukee did not receive any home games, and it still demonstrated a winning effort. Perhaps the conversation will change now, and perhaps the Dodgers should be worried.