Brewers Sweep Dodgers, Reach World Series for First Time Since 1982

The Milwaukee Brewers are headed to the World Series for the first time in 44 years after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Thursday night in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep and claiming the NL pennant at Dodger Stadium.

Milwaukee had to rally to finish it. Los Angeles jumped out to a 4-0 lead, including Shohei Ohtani’s three-run home run in the second inning. The Brewers began their comeback with two runs in the fourth, when Jake Bauers hit a two-run double. They added two more runs in the fifth to tie the game before Garrett Mitchell put Milwaukee ahead with a home run in the sixth. The Brewers then held on for the 6-4 victory.

The clincher carried weight beyond the game itself. Milwaukee swept a Dodgers team that entered the series as the two-time defending World Series champion, ending a 44-year wait to return to the Fall Classic. The Brewers’ last National League pennant and only previous World Series appearance came in 1982.

That 1982 team lost the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. This year’s club now gives Milwaukee another chance at its first championship on baseball’s biggest stage, and MLB says the Brewers will host World Series games for the first time since that 1982 season.

The result also capped a dominant series for Milwaukee against one of the sport’s standard-bearers. The Brewers won the best-of-seven NLCS 4-0 after a 103-win regular season, knocking out a Dodgers team that won 100 games and was trying to reach a third straight title.

Milwaukee’s return to the World Series is one of the franchise’s biggest milestones in decades, both for the length of the gap and for the opponent it came against. The Brewers had not been back to this point since an era when the franchise’s lone pennant was still fresh history. Now they will open a new World Series chapter after one of the most decisive NLCS finishes in club history.

World Series Game 1 is scheduled for Oct. 23, according to MLB.