Game 1. National League Championship Series. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Brewers. Seven games will decide the series.

Or will it?

Game 1 could decide it all. Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers is first in every category for starting pitchers. Think about that. Every single category. Dominant. 105 mph when he needs it.On the other side, Tarik Skubal. Cy Young last year. Cy Young the year before that. Devastating. Misiorowski 1.59 ERA against the Dodgers. Skubal: 1.97 career postseason ERA.

For Milwaukee, batting average and on-base carries the day. This team flat-out hits. Andrew Vaughn hit .306 in an year when anything over .280 is like what hitting .350 used to be. Vaughn, Bryce Turang, David Hamilton, Jake Bauers, Sal Frelick and William Contreras led the team during the year. Contreras and Frelick upped their game in the postseason. Jackson Chourio struggled against the San Diego Padres, but came through in the clutch.

Normally, we’d be talking about Shohei Ohtani, but because of injury, he got into some really bad habits to finish the year. We may be talking about him again since he has stopped with the happy feet and is simply turning his hips. Freddie Freeman has hit two homers in the last half of the season. He hit a couple out against Atlanta. Teoscar Hernandez has done a much better job laying off pitches in the dirt. Mookie Betts started the year hurt, but also got away from some bad habits and has been the Dodgers’ best hitter for the last two months.

Compared, the two are very similar in average, but Milwaukee has 40 more walks, but also has 120 more strikeouts on the year. They also turned 90 more singles and walks into doubles by way of the stolen base. The Dodgers have 50 more home runs. On the mound, they are very similar stats-wise, but Logan Henderson (2.47 ERA in 18 starts) and Robert Gasser 3.87 ERA in 14 starts) are not on par with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.53 ERA), Tyler Glasnow (3.53 ERA), and Blake Snell (1.90 ERA in nine starts). The Dodgers also have starters Emmett Sheehan, Jacob Wrobleski, and Roki Sasaki in the bullpen should L.A. need long relief or a bullpen game. That said, Milwaukee’s bullpen was about a third of a run better (insidethepen.com).

I’ve been finding reasons to pick against the Dodgers the last two postseasons. In 2024, the bullpen was so bad going into the playoffs it didn’t seem possible that they could win. The bullpen carried the team through every series. In 2025, the starters were a mess ending the year. The starters carried the day. This year, Los Angeles hit into an insane number of double plays (128), which cost them dearly in their regular-season series against Milwaukee, Atlanta, and San Diego. Their inability to drive in runs cost them. But, this team has a tremendous record of recognizing weakness and addressing it in the postseason. If the Dodgers are taking pitches and going the other way against Misiorowski, they can beat him. If their starters are good enough to use the bullpen less, they have a tiny advantage there. With as even as they are, a Game 1 win might be the difference.

Forecast: Dodgers in 7.