MILWAUKEE — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto stood on the same mound Monday where just a year ago he’d thrown a complete game and was pummeled by Brewers fans’ chants:
“Yel-li, Yel-li”
This time, en route to the Dodgers’ 7-4 loss to the Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Yamamoto had only lasted 2 ⅔ innings.
As American Family Field celebrated Brewers captain Christian Yelich’s go-ahead two-run single, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emerged from the visiting dugout, ready to take the ball from the starter who’d made himself a household name with his postseason heroics.
His early exit put the onus on the Dodger bullpen in a back-and-forth contest. And the Brewers’ bullpen shut down the Dodgers offense for the second straight game.
The NLCS heads to Los Angeles with the Brewers leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. The Dodgers are in a hole but will have home-field advantage for the next three games, needing to win four of the next five to advance to the World Series.
It was the second straight highly-touted pitching matchup, pitting Yamamoto against Logan Henderson, the Brewers’ 24-year-old budding star.
Yamamoto exited early after allowing three runs and four hits in the shortest start of his career. Against Henderson, the Dodgers took advantage of the mistakes made by the usually fundamentally sound Brewers defense to score four runs against him, only two of which were earned.
The Dodger offense started to chip away at Henderson right away. Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts worked a walk, which included a successful ABS challenge that turned a strikeout into a full count.
Betts then advanced to second on Freddie Freeman’s ground out to second and to third on a wild pitch.
The night before, Teoscar Hernández had zeroed in on the Dodgers’ at-bats with runners in scoring position in his postgame comments.
“We did a pretty good job,” he said after the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss in Game 1. “We just didn’t get the job done when we needed with guys in scoring position.”
His first at-bat Monday, hitting third in the order, came with Betts 90 feet from home plate. Roberts had swapped Hernández and slumping Will Smith in the batting order, moving Smith down to fifth.
“For Teo to get three cracks at this guy, I like it,” Roberts said.
Right away, Hernández delivered. He fell into an 0-2 count but prolonged the at-bat and drove a fastball into right-center field for a sacrifice fly.
The Brewers, however, evened the score without delay. Yamamoto struck out Jackson Chourio — whose leadoff home run last year was the lone run in Yamamoto’s NLCS complete game — to open the frame.
Then Brice Turang worked a full count — although the first ball, which caught most of the low and outside corner, would have been reversed for strike three if Smith had challenged the call — hit an opposite-field double. And William Contreras fought off a low slider, poking it into shallow left field to tie the score.
Two innings later, the Dodgers took the lead again, rewarded for hard contact as the Brewers defense showed its first signs of sloppy play. Tommy Edman led off with a single, and then Betts scorched a 100.9-mph one-hopper at shortstop Cooper Pratt, who mishandled it, giving Betts and single to put two runners on. Edman then advanced to third on a fly ball by Freeman.
Henderson tried to pick off Edman, but his errant throw gave the Dodgers the lead.
It didn’t last long.
In the bottom of the third, Yamamoto gave up a leadoff single and issued two walks before Yelich came up to the plate with two outs and drove a curveball into center field for two runs.
The first walk, to Turang, included a borderline ball four call. And the second, to Jake Bauers, lasted 12 pitches.
As soon as Yamamoto left the game, it was clear it would be an uphill battle for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers retook the lead in the fifth with some more help from the Brewers. After Kyle Tucker’s leadoff double, Tommy Edman laid down a sacrifice bunt. Henderson picked it up and sailed a throw to first, allowing the tying run to score.
Later in the inning, after former Dodger Dustin May replaced Henderson, Freeman hit a sacrifice fly, and Edman scored the go-ahead run.
But, as had been the pattern all game, that 4-3 lead didn’t hold for long.
Roberts brought left-hander Kris Bubic in, replacing right-hander Roki Sasaki after a hitless inning, to face the left-handed heavy heart of the order. But he missed down the middle to Contreras, who gave the fastball a ride over the center field wall, tying the score.
In the sixth, against Dodgers right-hander Brock Stewart, Contreras drove in the go-ahead run in a traffic-filled inning that included a muffed pickoff attempt. Dodgers lefty Tanner Scott came to the rescue and struck out Bauers and Yelich to end the inning (and Garrett Mitchell to kick off the seventh).
The Brewers added insurance runs in the eighth inning, with a pair of singles off hard-throwing right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, and a third against left-hander Justin Wrobleski.
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