Brewers Sweep Dodgers to Reach First World Series Since 1982

The Milwaukee Brewers are going to the World Series for the first time in 44 years. On Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Milwaukee rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, finishing a four-game sweep of the defending two-time World Series champions.

The final out came on the left field warning track, where Jackson Chourio tracked down a deep fly ball. Brewers radio voice Jeff Levering, who shared a booth with the late Bob Uecker, delivered the call fans will replay for years, shouting that the Brewers had won the pennant and that the World Series would run through Wisconsin.

Game 1 of the World Series is set for October 23 on FOX.

How Milwaukee Closed Out the Series

Power was supposed to be the Dodgers’ edge. Instead, Milwaukee out-homered Los Angeles 7-1 across the NLCS, and the long ball decided the clincher.

• Garrett Mitchell broke the tie with a solo home run in the sixth inning of Game 4.
• David Hamilton added a critical insurance homer in the ninth.
• Chourio secured the final out at the warning track to send Milwaukee to the Fall Classic.

The Call History Got Wrong

Many Brewers fans have long credited Bob Uecker with the most famous line in franchise history. He never said it. During Game 5 of the 1982 American League Championship Series, Uecker left the booth late in the game and went down to the clubhouse to host the radio celebration.

So when Rod Carew bounced a ball to Robin Yount at shortstop, and Yount’s throw to Cecil Cooper seemed to float forever before fans poured onto the field at County Stadium, it was Uecker’s broadcast partner, Dwayne Mosley, who told the city it had a World Series. For four decades, a repeat of those words looked far from certain.

Christian Yelich Finally Gets Past Los Angeles

Roughly one year earlier, Christian Yelich stood at the same corner locker in the visitors’ clubhouse after the Dodgers swept Milwaukee in the 2025 NLCS. Los Angeles had ended Brewers seasons three times during his tenure:

• 2018: Game 7 of the NLCS, decided in part by a catch from Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor
• 2020: another postseason exit against L.A.
• 2025: a four-game NLCS sweep

Yelich, the longest-tenured hitter on the roster, arrived in 2018 as the club’s current golden era began. The team surprised him this year by naming him captain. He kept insisting that each season stands on its own and that this group was different from last year’s. After the clincher, he credited the faith inside the clubhouse and the steady belief that the team could finish the job.

Winning Without the Long Ball

The 1982 club earned the nickname “Harvey’s Wallbangers” by leading the majors in home runs. This year’s Brewers look nothing like that. They tied for second to last in homers during the regular season yet scored the second-most runs in baseball, grinding through at-bats in a style outfielder Sal Frelick describes as dragging pitchers to hell.

The surprise surge of power against the Dodgers only made the pennant run stranger and sweeter.

A Season of Historic Numbers

Thursday marked Milwaukee’s 170th meaningful game of 2026, and the Brewers have won 110 of them:

• 103 regular-season wins, a franchise record and the best mark in the majors
• 3 NLDS wins over a Padres team that owned baseball’s best record after the All-Star break
• 4 NLCS wins over the Dodgers

Milwaukee also became the first team in 103 years to be swept by an opponent in the postseason and then beat that same club the following October. No team had ever answered a postseason sweep with a sweep of its own until now. Four more wins would bring the franchise its first championship.

From a Mocking Cake to a Pennant

Front office members still laugh about a cake once left with the receptionist at what was then Miller Park. After a 2008 playoff trip and a 2011 run that ended two wins short of the World Series, the club slid into a slump: a second-half collapse in 2014, a managerial change early in 2015, and eventual turnover on the roster and in the GM office. Following a couple of wins in early May, a frustrated fan delivered a cake with blue frosting congratulating the team on no longer being the worst in MLB. Officials did not take it as praise, though a few brave staffers ate it anyway.

Assistant GM Karl Mueller, who joined the Brewers in 2004 as one of manager Ned Yost’s analytically minded “whiz kids” scouting off VHS tapes, admitted the pennant was hard to process. The turnaround is real: across the past 10 regular seasons, only the Dodgers, Astros and Yankees have a better winning percentage. Since Pat Murphy became manager three seasons ago, no club has topped Milwaukee’s. President of baseball operations Matt Arnold said the moment felt real, then turned attention straight to staying focused.

Mark Attanasio, Bud Selig and the Number 44

After the Game 3 win, owner Mark Attanasio phoned 92-year-old franchise founder Bud Selig at 10:50 p.m. Central time. Selig, too wired to sleep, kept describing this team with one word: remarkable.

When Attanasio’s group bought the club ahead of the 2005 season, Milwaukee had just finished its 12th straight losing campaign. A .500 record that first year felt like a playoff berth, and the 2008 Wild Card, which snapped a 26-year postseason drought, felt like a title.

Attanasio also found meaning in the 44-year wait. Hank Aaron wore No. 44, including during his two seasons in Milwaukee, where he hit the last of his 755 home runs 50 years ago. Aaron and Uecker later helped lobby Wisconsin lawmakers to build Miller Park and keep the team in baseball’s smallest media market. Attanasio pointed to several moments that felt fated:

• Ty France’s fly ball glancing off the roof into Chourio’s glove in NLDS Game 1
• Mitchell hauling in a deep drive from Manny Machado in the NLDS clincher
• Jake Bauers, who passed on retirement in 2024 when his wife became pregnant, delivering an age-30 breakout and a string of huge NLCS at-bats
• Milwaukee becoming the first team ever to win six comeback games in the first eight games of a postseason

Fans Crossed the Country for the Clincher

Brewers supporters filled Dodger Stadium, and thousands stayed to watch the club receive the Warren C. Giles Trophy. Joe Stolarczyk watched Game 3 at Hog Creek Bar & Grill in Mosinee, then decided around 1 a.m. to fly to Los Angeles. When friends did not answer, his brother David Stolarczyk and sister Mary Pilz joined him, buying tickets on the drive to a Minneapolis flight and reaching seats behind home plate before batting practice ended. Joe was living in Alaska during the 1982 run.

Lifelong friends Dave Wuest of Atlanta and Murray Williams of Orange County, who have known each other since kindergarten, also made the trip. Both still remember the pain of the 1982 Game 7 loss to the Cardinals. Yelich called the traveling crowd electric and said the team will need that energy in the World Series.