Milwaukee Brewers manager went with another bullpen game on Wednesday afternoon, but this time, they ran into a dominating pitching performance as Clayton Kershaw led the Dodgers to a 5-2 win in Los Angeles.
Kershaw held the Brewers to a run and three hits in seven innings as the Dodgers took a 3-2 lead in the NLCS. It puts the Brewers in a must win scenario in game six on Friday night at Miller Park.
Kershaw’s outing came after he didn’t make it out of the fourth inning in game one of the series at Miller Park.
Wade Miley started for the Brewers but faced just one batter before Craig Counsell went to Brandon Woodruff out of the bullpen. After Miley walked the first hitter, Woodruff hit Justin Turner but struck out David Freese and got Manny Machado to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the third when Lorenzo Cain’s double scored Orlando Arcia from first base. Kershaw pitched out of the jam from there and held the Brewers without another run through seven innings.
The Dodgers tied the game 1-1 in the fifth on a Austin Barnes run scoring single. They took the lead in the sixth on a run scoring single to left by Max Muncy off of Woodruff, who was tagged with the loss.
The Dodgers added a second run in the sixth to make it 3-1, then scored two more in the 7th to go up 5-1.
Through five games, Milwaukee starters have pitched a total of 14 innings. However, reliever Brandon Woodruff tossed 5 2/3 innings of relief in Wednesday’s loss.
The Brewers must now win the next two games to earn a trip to the World Series. Wade Miley will start on full rest on Friday and if the Badgers pull out a win, Jhoulys Chacin will get the game seven start on Saturday.
If the Brewers are going to see a game seven, they’re going to need to start to hit the ball. They managed just five hits yesterday and eight hits in the 13-inning loss the day before. They’ve scored just two runs in the last 22 innings.
As a team, the Brewers are batting just .219 in the first five games of the series. Christian Yelich is batting just .150 (3 for 20). Jesus Aguilar is hitting .222 and Mike Moustakas is at 0.95. Ryan Braun, who has been one of the Brewers top producers in the series, is batting just .238.
The Brewers finished 51-30 at Miller Park this season. They’ll need to add two to that win total in order to make their first World Series appearance since 1982.
