Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know, brought to you by David Adler. Today, the Brewers can sweep out the reigning champs -- in a very un-Brewers-like way? -- and the Guardians take control of the ALCS.
The Small Ball Brewers are on the verge of sweeping out the Big Bad Dodgers.
Except, here's the thing: They're not ACTUALLY playing small ball.
The Dodgers' three-peat quest is on the brink, but NOT because the Brewers are bunting and hitting-and-running and slapping singles all over the place, which is the picture you might get in your head when you think about the Brew Crew. It's the exact opposite. The Brewers have turned the tables on the back-to-back champs by … belting clutch home run after clutch home run.
There was Brice Turang's game-tying oppo taco off Tarik Skubal in Game 1. William Contreras' 436-foot moonshot in Game 2. And, last night in Game 3, Jackson Chourio's leadoff shot and Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell's back-to-back homers off Blake Snell.
With all those blasts -- and nary a bloop to be found -- the Brew Crew has taken a commanding three-games-to-none lead on the Dodgers. Tonight, Milwaukee can win the pennant and make it to the World Series for the first time since 1982.
Mike Petriello dug up a crazy-but-true fact about how the Brewers are winning this NLCS. Of the 228 different teams to play in a League Championship Series, the 2026 Brew Crew has the single HIGHEST "three true outcome" percentage of them all.
Baseball's three true outcomes are home runs, walks and strikeouts -- they get their name because they're the things that come down purely to the battle of pitcher vs. batter, without batted-ball luck or the defense getting involved. A lot of the time, when we think of the three true outcomes, we think about all-or-nothing power hitters. It's the last thing you would associate with a team like the Brewers.
And yet: Nearly half of Milwaukee's plate appearances in this series have ended with a home run, a walk or a K. That would be the highest in LCS history. And it's working -- mainly because of, well, all the homers. The Brewers are outhomering the Dodgers 5-0 in the NLCS.
