™NLCS: Dodgers Get Swept by the Brewers in Ultra-Pathetic Fashion
The Dodgers were lifeless. The Brewers were wizards. Ohtani ended the drought. And Edwin Díaz is an absolute fool.
The Dodgers’ season is over after a limp NLCS.
Things were looking lovely after 3 innings at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles was up 4-0 off the back of Shohei Ohtani’s first home run since August 18, a 3-run no-doubter crushed 428 feet to right-center. Glasnow was perfect through 3 innings. Retiring 3 sides in order with 5 strikeouts. Corners were painted effortlessly. In the top of the 4th, Glasnow struck out Jackson Chourio to make it 6 Ks through 10 batters. A miracle was beginning to take shape.
Then, on the 11th batter of Game 4 in the NLCS, up 4-0 at home in the biggest game of the year, Glasnow walked Brice Turang. Then… William Contreras hit a double. Then Jake Bauers hit a double, bringing Turang and Contreras home. The frame ended. The score was 4-2, and the Dodgers were mere mortals once again.
The Brewers had watched the film on Glasnow, and Sal Frelick took advantage in the fifth to steal 2nd with one out. Frelick had reached base on a single up the middle. David Hamilton immediately drove him home, Glasnow got pulled, and then Hamilton scored as well. After 3.1 perfect innings, Glasnow finished with 4 earned runs through 4.1 in a meltdown to close out the season.
Ohtani’s last at-bat was a 3-pitch strikeout. The final offering of Ohtani’s 2026 campaign was a slider from Aaron Ashby that ran almost a foot out of the zone. Ohtani lunged awkwardly and failed to fight it off. It was as bad a swing as he’s taken in his career, completely erasing the aura from his 2nd-inning dinger. No need to discuss the Dodgers’ offense further; they failed to score a run after the 2nd inning, despite putting a man on third with one out TWICE in the final innings.
Perhaps the single worst moment of Game 4 came from who you’d expect: Edwin Díaz. With an ERA well over 8 and not an ounce of the 3-time All-Star’s former presence, manager Dave Roberts marched Díaz out in the 7th to do the impossible: keep the Dodgers in the game. Díaz hadn’t recorded more than 6 outs in a night in over 10 years. And down 5-4 with the season on the line, Díaz looked incredible, retiring 8 straight without breaking a sweat. Then, with 2 outs gone in the top of the 9th, Díaz hung a 90-mph slider middle-middle and David Hamilton, the 9-spot batter who had only 4 home runs in all of 2026, made him pay.
These things happen, and giving up a single run through 3 innings is a 3.0 ERA, which is very good by any standard. But when he struck out Jackson Chourio on the following at-bat to close out the top of the 9th, Edwin Díaz made a bigger mistake than hanging a slider: he celebrated. Díaz celebrated the strikeout as if he hadn’t just given up a crucial insurance homer, pounding his chest as he walked towards the dugout, trailing 6-4 in the bottom of the 9th, 3 outs away from dropping a historic sweep at home. He couldn’t have looked like more of a clown.
Aaron Ashby came right back in and made quick work of the Dodgers, looking every bit of a World Series closer. Ashby and Díaz both pitched 3 innings, but Ashby didn’t give up a run, impressively sneaking out of multiple jams.
Aside from that glorious 2nd inning, the whole Dodgers squad was unwatchable. The full-price team of superstars with one of the best pitching lineups in the history of baseball got swept by a discount program from Wisconsin. Milwaukee takes the pennant and heads to the World Series. Los Angeles stays home and licks their wounds.
But hey, there’s always next year.
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