Dodgers collapse in Game 4 loss to Brewers, watch three-peat end with NLCS sweep
The Dodgers’ reign atop Major League Baseball officially ended at 8:08 p.m.Thursday night.Kiké Hernández hit a line drive to left.
Jackson Chourio caught it on the run.And instead of a World Series three-peat, the Dodgers saw their dynasty end in the most futile fashion.With a 5-4 loss in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the two-time defending champions were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers.No World Series three-peat.
No historic march to baseball immortality.Just a fourth-straight loss and an embarrassing elimination that will send the Dodgers into a long, regretful winter full of future uncertainty.This team’s season was not supposed to end like this.Not after they entered the year coming off back-to-back championships.
Not after they amassed the league’s most talented –– and expensive –– roster with a record-setting $432 million payroll.And certainly not after the way Game 4 started, when the Dodgers jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second inning thanks to a cathartic three-run blast from the previously slumping Shohei Ohtani.At that point, it felt like the tide just might be starting to turn.All month, the Dodgers had waited for an injury-hampered Ohtani to look like himself at the plate.
All week, they had waited for their offense to show any genuine sign of life against a dominant Brewers pitching staff.Finally, after returning to his customary leadoff spot of the lineup for the first time this postseason, Ohtani took care of both, belting a 428-foot bomb for his first home run since Aug.18.As had been the case throughout this one-sided series, however, the Brewers regrouped, then came roaring back.It started in the top of the fourth, when Tyler Glasnow –– having retired his first 10 batters, six via strikeout –– gave up a walk, then back-to-back ground-rule doubles, the latter coming from NLCS MVP Jake Bauers to score two runs and cut the Dodgers’ lead in half.An inning later, the cushion would be gone, with Milwaukee...