Brewers 7, Dodgers 4: Contreras Tied It, Then Took the Lead

Three leads. Three answers. Then a 436-foot tie.

October 12, 2026 - Milwaukee - Kris Bubic had already struck out Brice Turang to start the fifth. He threw William Contreras a pitch the catcher could lift. Contreras sent it 436 feet to center, 106.3 mph off the bat, his third homer of the postseason. The Milwaukee Brewers were tied again.

They had already been down 1-0, 2-1, and 4-3. They answered in the bottom of each of those innings. They beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 in National League Championship Series Game 2 and took a 2-0 lead before the series moves to Los Angeles.

Sunny. 85 degrees. Wind 1 mph, varying. First pitch 4:04 p.m. Attendance 42,516. The game lasted 3 hours, 21 minutes. Milwaukee finished with 12 hits. Los Angeles finished with three. The MLB recap said four Brewers relievers then threw five perfect innings, the most all-perfect innings by a bullpen in a postseason game.

"We've got to keep going," Christian Yelich said in the MLB recap, after the two-out single that first put Milwaukee in front. "We haven't accomplished anything yet. It was a good start. But still a long way to go."

A wild pitch, a 12-pitch walk, and Yamamoto's shortest October

Logan Henderson walked Mookie Betts on six pitches to open the game. Freddie Freeman moved him up. A wild pitch sent Betts to third. Teoscar Hernández lifted a sacrifice fly to Garrett Mitchell. 1-0. Shohei Ohtani struck out swinging.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto lasted 2 2/3 innings: four hits, three earned, two walks, one strikeout, 75 pitches, 46 strikes. The MLB recap called it the shortest postseason start of his career. Turang doubled to left on a 101.5 mph line drive. Contreras singled him home. 1-1.

The third was the inning that ended Yamamoto's night. Tommy Edman singled. Betts singled. Freeman flew Edman to third. Henderson then threw a pickoff to third into the outfield. Edman scored. 2-1. Teoscar and Ohtani grounded to David Hamilton. The damage was already on the board.

Hamilton led off the bottom half with a single and stole second. Turang walked. Contreras flew out. Jake Bauers then saw 12 pitches and walked, the MLB recap said, more than seven minutes after he first stepped in. Yelich lined the next ball to center. Hamilton scored. Turang scored. 3-2. Alex Vesia struck out Mitchell to end it. Yamamoto was done after eight outs.

"He just didn't have it tonight," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in the MLB recap. "Which is very rare."

Roki Sasaki threw a scoreless fourth. Henderson threw a 1-2-3 fourth. The 3-2 held for one more inning of quiet.

Two more Dodgers runs, then Contreras again

Kyle Tucker doubled to start the fifth, 106.5 mph to right. Edman bunted. Henderson threw it away. Tucker scored. 3-3. Dustin May took over. Betts grounded Edman to third. Freeman's sacrifice fly to Jackson Chourio scored him. Milwaukee challenged the tag. The call stood. 4-3. Teoscar struck out.

Contreras tied it on the second pitch he saw from Bubic. Bauers struck out. Yelich singled. Mitchell walked. Brock Stewart inherited a full mess. Cooper Pratt singled through second. Bases loaded, two outs. Sal Frelick took a called third strike. The 4-4 stayed 4-4.

JoJo Romero struck out Ohtani and Will Smith in a clean sixth. Stewart hit Hamilton. Chourio grounded him to third. Stewart intentionally walked Turang. Contreras singled to left. Hamilton scored. 5-4. The MLB recap said Contreras became the fourth player with three separate game-tying or go-ahead hits in a postseason game, and the first since Sandy Alomar in the 1997 ALDS.

"This is a team that … competes and fights every pitch," Contreras said in the MLB recap. He went 3-for-4 with three RBI.

Tanner Scott struck out Yelich to end the sixth. Romero had the lead. He got the win (1-1). Stewart took the loss (0-1).

Five perfect innings and two more runs

Abner Uribe threw a 1-2-3 seventh. Pratt singled in the bottom half and was thrown out stealing, Smith to Betts. Uribe struck out Betts to start the eighth. Aaron Ashby struck out Freeman and got Teoscar to ground out.

Hamilton singled to start the eighth, stole second again, and went to third on Chourio's groundout. Turang singled him home. 6-4. Contreras walked. Bauers singled to center. Turang scored. Andy Pages misplayed it. 7-4. Justin Wrobleski finished the inning.

Ashby closed it. Ohtani flew to Chourio. Smith lined to Frelick. Miguel Rojas struck out swinging. Five-out save, his first of the postseason. No hits, two strikeouts, 21 pitches.

Henderson lasted four-plus: three hits, four runs, two earned, two walks, two strikeouts, 64 pitches. "I didn’t feel like I did my job tonight," he said in the MLB recap. "For the guys to pick me up, to chase Yamamoto after the third inning … just a lot of fight, a lot of togetherness."

Los Angeles went 0-for-the-late-traffic after the fifth. Ohtani finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. The Dodgers' three hits were Betts, Tucker, and Edman. Milwaukee left traffic everywhere and still scored seven. Hamilton reached three times, stole two bases, and scored three runs. Turang went 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, three runs, and the eighth-inning RBI single.

The MLB recap put teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven at 79-16 historically. Max Muncy, in that same recap, said there is a lot of series left. Milwaukee still has to win two more. Los Angeles has to win four of five.

Wednesday in Los Angeles

The series shifts west. Game 3 is Wednesday. Milwaukee has not hosted a World Series game in 44 years, the MLB recap noted. That is the next room, not this one. This one was three deficits, a 436-foot fly ball, and a bullpen that did not allow a baserunner after May entered.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Milwaukee at 13 team fantasy points on a 7-4. Contreras had 11 hitting FP. Hamilton had 10. Turang had 8. Ashby had 10.66 pitching FP on the five-out save. Uribe had 10.33. Romero had 7. Los Angeles sat at 0. Yamamoto's 2 2/3 did not score. Fantasy points measure the night. Share price is what the market pays. They move together, but they are not the same number. See dynamic pricing.

Track the Brewers and Dodgers on the marketplace. Information only; not financial advice.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*