Brewers sweep Dodgers in NLCS to book ticket to World Series

LOS ANGELES — Afterwards, once the Milwaukee Brewers had celebrated on the field at Dodger Stadium and Jake Bauers had been named NLCS MVP, the Los Angeles Dodgers tried to make sense of the sweep within their clubhouse.

Cameras swarmed Shohei Ohtani, still sweating from the exertion of the game. Blake Snell and Tarik Skubal sat quietly at their lockers side by side. Pending free agents Kiké Hernandez and Miguel Rojas answered questions about the future.

“You’ve got to realize this game is hard,” Freddie Freeman said. “Sports is hard. Life is hard. Sometimes you can give it your all and still come short, and it happened for us.”

One year after sweeping the Brewers in the NLCS, baseball’s two-time defending champions were now on the other side of a sweep. And while the Dodgers conceded defeat, the Brewers popped champagne in celebration.