With Milwaukee's BABIP Machine delivering another win for Brewers, the Dodgers' dynasty is on the brink.

Milwaukee's BABIP Machine and the unbeatable Bull put the Dodgers' three-peat hopes in jeopardy as they take a 2-0 NLCS lead.

Aaron Ashby on Brewers' CLUTCH over Dodgers: 'We play a unique brand of baseball'

Aaron Ashby joins John Smoltz on King of the Diamond to discuss the Milwaukee Brewers' Game 1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday afternoon was a must-win for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Despite the widespread perception that the Dodgers were an unbeatable superteam, it was Milwaukee, the team that finished with the best record in the league, that played essentially flawless baseball in the 1-game win streak. While Jakub Misiorowski wasn't his usual dominant self, every time Los Angeles had a chance to break the game, he put pressure on "The Miz" and his team's defense.

The Dodgers, who had already pitched in the second inning, had the bases loaded with postseason star Keke Hernandez at the plate. Once again, the Brewers defense was perfectly positioned to turn the game-ending double play. After Milwaukee's offense was stymied for two runs against Tarik Escobal, their bullpen continued its impressive streak, going 4.2 scoreless innings to secure the win.

The bright lights aren't too bright for the Brewers or front row superfan AMY in Game 1 of the NLCS

Still, the Dodgers felt good about their chances with 2025 postseason hitter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 against Logan Henderson. For all the hype about Los Angeles' impressive turnaround, Milwaukee's BABIP (Battled Average Batting Average) machine was on top once again. Gearing up to hold on to a massive 2-0 series lead and put the Dodgers' three-peat hopes on life support with a 7-4 win.

Los Angeles jumped out to an early lead thanks to some uncharacteristic sloppiness from the Brewers. Mookie Betts walked, Freddie Freeman moved him to second, and he took third on a wild pitch from starter Logan Henderson. Teoscar Hernandez knocked him in with a sacrifice fly and the Dodgers took a hitless lead 1-0. Sure enough, Milwaukee immediately put it in the bottom of the first.

The Dodgers missed an opportunity to challenge an obvious missed hit and challenged Bryce Turang. William Contreras got the bat out one-handed and somehow made contact with Yamamoto's pitch to throw it into left field. This will not be the last time.

The third inning was almost a repeat. Los Angeles mounted a quick rally on back-to-back singles by Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts. Sal Frelik stole a double from Freddie Freeman with a nice run into the right-center field gap, but an error trying to pick up at first base scored Edman. But the Brewers, knowing the Dodgers' biggest weakness was scoring chances, had them right where they wanted them. Easy outs by Teoscar Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani ended the threat, and Milwaukee answered right back in the bottom of the inning.

David Hamilton hit another bloop single, took second, and again Bryce Turang reached base on a missed triple that went unchallenged by catcher Will Smith. Jake Bauers, one of the worst hitters in baseball before he wore a Milwaukee uniform, drew a walk after a long hit off Yamamoto, and Christian Yelich made him pay with a single to center.

After all that playoff success in 2025, Yamamoto pitched just 2.2 innings, allowing four hits and three runs. Missed challenges, bloop singles, incredibly well-timed line drives from below-average shots, Milwaukee's ideal offensive output.

Now trailing 3-2, the Dodgers battled back in the fifth. Kyle Tucker led off with a double, before a throwing error by Henderson on Tommy Edman's bunt allowed him to score and advance Edman to second. Once again, without hitting runners in scoring position, it put Los Angeles ahead 4-3.

Sure enough, William Contreras immediately tied it in the bottom of the inning with a mammoth homer to left center.

The seemingly unhittable Brewers bullpen pitched another scoreless inning before the Milwaukee superteam once again kicked into high gear in the bottom of the sixth. Hamilton reached on a groundout, advanced to second on a weak pickoff, advanced to third on Jackson Chorio's groundout and scored Contreras on the other end of the at-bat.

Again, the Brewers' relief pitchers proved to be the greatest pitching unit ever assembled, extending their streak to nearly 29 innings with just one run allowed. Monday marked the first time in playoff history that a team went more than five innings in a postseason game without surrendering a base runner. JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill, Aaron Ashby, DL Hall... this is the real superteam and it cost about $17 to make.

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The BABIP continued into the eighth as David Hamilton crushed a 73 mph single to right field, took second and scored on another 71 mph single off Bryce Tureng. The hit moved the Brewers to 5-12 with RISP.

Jake Bauers added another 73 mph bloop hit to make Milwaukee 6-13 with RISP.

Somehow, Milwaukee has perfected the art of single-handedly running on weak balls in play. Some might say it's a skill, but decades of data and information have told us it's not. Players and teams with poor exit velocity do not perform better in batting average, in fact the opposite is true.

The league leaders in hard hitting percentage this season are:

All five had BABIPs at or above league average, with Wood and De La Cruz at .344 and .359, respectively. Jac Caglianone was eighth in slugging percentage and second in baseball in BABIP. Hitting the ball hard is a skill, soft contact is not. Yet the Brewers have three players in the top seven in BABIP anyway.

Does it matter that Milwaukee may have gotten lucky this season? not at all A playoff series epitomizes small sample size, and reversion to the mean doesn't have to happen in games five through seven. Contreras can hit 17 straight times off the bat, because that's baseball. That's why the Dodgers' World Series predictions were always laughable because of their talent.

Milwaukee had more hits in this game than runners in scoring position, not even a single, than the Dodgers had. And they return to Los Angeles with a 2-0 series lead and a very likely World Series berth. The gap between teams in baseball is so small that a jump here or there, a team's ability to ensure a magical 71-mile-per-hour hitter, despite not being able to do it, can change a playoff series. David Hamilton, an objectively awful baseball player, reached base four times and scored two runs. Shohei Ohtani was the best player in baseball history. This is not unusual or unexpected, it is part of the sport. That is why it is impossible for a team to guarantee anything.

Will this matter to the "Wrecking Baseball" crowd? Of course not, reality never does.

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