Brewers demoralize Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take stunning 2-0 NLCS lead

MILWAUKEE –– The Dodgers were hoping to hit the reset switch on Monday.Instead, all they did was slam down on the panic button.Losing Game 1 of this National League Championship Series rematch against the Milwaukee Brewers was one thing.Dropping Game 2 on Monday, however, has put their season in suddenly dire straits.This time, they weren’t facing a presumptive Cy Young Award winner like Jacob Misiorowski.

This time, they had their own postseason stalwart, reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on the hill to calm the waters.But in a XX-XX defeat at American Family Field, an unexpected thing happened. Yamamoto, despite entering with a five-game playoff win streak and the second-lowest postseason ERA in the last 100 years, couldn’t steady the two-time defending champions.The Brewers, who allowed Yamamoto to throw a complete game against them on the very same mound in Game 2 of last year’s NLCS sweep, turned the tables decisively with long, relentless, unforgiving at-bats.In a 75-pitch grind, Yamamoto would last only 2 ⅔ innings.Despite being handed a pair of one-run leads, he would depart the mound with the Dodgers behind. It was a demoralizing turn of events –– keyed by a couple missed ABS challenge opportunities for Will Smith, an epic 12-battle by Jake Bauers, and a go-ahead two-run single from Christian Yelich that ultimately chased Yamamoto from the game.And while the game would go back-and-forth from there, his early exit gave the Dodgers’ bullpen too tall a task to survive, sending the team back to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday desperately needing a response to a stunning two-games-to-none deficit.The Dodgers did open the scoring Monday, manufacturing a first-inning run after Mookie Betts drew a leadoff walk, took second on a grounder, advanced to third on a wild pitch, then scored on a Teoscar Hernández sacrifice fly.However, the Brewers responded with a rally of their own in the bottom of the first –– one that set the ...