Dodgers advance to World Series, defeat Brewers 5-1 in NLCS Game 7

The Dodgers did it — it wasn’t easy, but they did it. They’re headed back to the World Series after defeating the Brewers in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, 5-1. A Cody Bellinger homer early combined with a later Yasiel Puig dinger sealed the deal for Los Angeles, and now they’re set to face the Boston Red Sox in the World Series for the first time in over 100 years — back when Babe Ruth was still a pitcher, and still on the Sox.

We live blogged all of Game 7, and you can check it out below.

Hello, it’s Marc Normandin here to live blog us all through the postseason. Want to read this live blog from the beginning? Scroll down to the “1st inning” marker and work your way back up!

9th inning: Woodruff is still out there, and he’ll face Puig first. It’s Puig’s three-run homer that took the air out of this building. He follows it up with an infield hit, because he has layers.

Puig just had a goofy-ass slide he did not expect to make to make it to third on Taylor’s single. He’s safe, but goofy. The Puig way.

Austin Barnes grounds out, but Matt Kemp is now pinch-hitting for Jansen with the one out. He’s intentionally walked to load the bases, which brings up Kiké Hernandez. Joakim Soria is warming up in the Brewers’ bullpen, but it’s going to take a big pitch from Woodruff here to make that matter in any way.

He gets one, in the top outside corner for a called strike three, to retire Hernandez. Woodruff isn’t out of the... sigh, the woods... yet, as Muncy is up now and those bases sure are still loaded.

Woodruff falls behind 3-0, but he comes back and strikes Muncy out to keep the Dodgers from scoring any more runs. Here comes Clayton Kershaw, with a 5-1 lead to protect. If he does, the Dodgers are going back to the World Series.

Travis Shaw grounds out — not a great start. There are just two outs left in the Brewers’ season. Aguilar works a 3-1 count — they’ll need this kind of patience to have a chance against Kershaw. They will also need to make contact: Aguilar punches out, his fourth strikeout of the night.

I thought Brewers fans were venting their frustration, but no, Mike Moustakas is up. The season now rides on him.

Moustakas strikes out! The Dodgers are headed to the World Series once again, and the Brewers fall one game short of returning for the first time since 1982.

8th inning: Brandon Woodruff is here, and he strikes out Justin Turner to begin his outing. Now he gets Manny Machado, and he strikes him out, too. Brewers fans are still enjoying booing Machado’s every action or inaction, but down 5-1, it sure feels less... impactful? That’s the wrong word, but whatever. I’m live blogging, not perfect word choicing.

Bellinger strikes out, too. Maybe Woodruff should have come in when Jeffress did! It’ll be Cain, Yelich, and Braun in the eighth, so the Brewers certainly have a chance to start their comeback.

Jansen is still out here for Los Angeles, as expected. Kershaw is warming, too, so his pitching has gone from hypothetical to what’s happening. Jansen might not need relief, though: he retires Cain on a ground out, strikes out the Ghost of Christian Yelich, and then gets Braun swinging, too. Jansen has thrown 15 pitches, 12 of them strikes, and to get four outs. It’s 5-1 Dodgers, and the Brewers have three outs left to make that lead disappear.

7th inning: Madson bats for himself, and strikes out. Expected outcome! Hernandez fares better, singling, and that brings Corey Knebel in for Jeffress to face Muncy. The at-bat starts with Hernandez getting thrown out trying to steal second. Kratz had a great throw that completely erased Hernandez’s jump.

Muncy then strikes out to end the top of the seventh, but it’s not the Dodgers who need to concern themselves with scoring all that much right now, since they’re still up 5-1.

The Brewers keep getting innings going just a little too late. Orlando Arcia singles here, but after there are already two outs, so now it’s the end of the night for Corey Knebel, as he’s being replaced by pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson.

Kenley Jansen enters the game for Madson. Is Clayton Kershaw going to close this one out? That seems to make the most sense: Jansen to finish the seventh, pitch the eighth, and Clayton Kershaw, Temporary Closer for the ninth. Jansen gets his out, and we’re on to the eighth. 5-1, Los Angeles.

6th inning: Xavier Cedeno wasn’t in the game long enough for me to write about him: he gave up a single to Muncy, and then Jeremy Jeffress came in the game to replace him and face Justin Turner.

Jeffress gives up a single to Turner, so there are two on and no outs for Machado, who definitely cannot wait to ruin the 2018 season for these fans. It’d be a great heel move, and also a great baseball move. Win-win!

Machado makes his first out of the night instead with a fly to right, but there’s still just the one out, and Cody Bellinger, who drove in the Dodgers’ two runs with a homer earlier, is up. All he does this time is move Muncy to third, and at the expense of Turner being thrown out at second. Bellinger beat out the double play throw easily, though, so here’s Puig with a chance to collect a two-out RBI.

Puig does one better than that: he crushes a homer to left-center that had a majestic bat flip to go with it, as well as a celebration around the bases, because the only thing Yasiel Puig loves more than playing baseball is winning baseball. It’s 5-1, Dodgers, and this inning isn’t over yet.

Well, now it is, but the damage is done. 5-1, Milwaukee, and the Brewers have some work to do.

Ryan Braun and Travis Shaw do not respond in the way Brewers’ fans had to have been hoping for, as they both fly out, and against Ryan Madson no less. Here’s Aguilar, who is 0-for-2 tonight. Every time I look at the OPS of someone on the Brewers or Dodgers in the postseason I do not understand how anyone has scored this series.

Aguilar is now 0-for-3 in Game 7, and the Brewers are still down by four, but now with three fewer outs.

5th inning: Josh Hader is still in — no surprise there, given his low pitch count. He can go long tonight if need be, especially since he either has the rest of the offseason or at least the next two nights to rest.

Chris Taylor walks, bringing up Austin Barnes. Barnes goes down by way of the K, and here’s the pitcher, Buehler. He’s pitching too well for the Dodgers to pull him, and he’s thrown just 63 pitches to this point, anyway. Plus, he has a job here fit for a pitcher, and he accomplishes it: Buehler bunts Taylor over to second, bringing up Hernandez with a runner in scoring position.

Hernandez wants to crush it, you can tell by his swings, but he’s just fouling these fastballs off. He fouls off the third one, too, except right into the catcher’s mitt, and the Dodgers fail to add to their 2-1 lead.

They do succeed in one thing, however: Hader is now out of the game, as Domingo Santana is pinch-hitting for him here in the bottom of the fifth. That came after Orlando Arcia made the first out of the frame.

Well, Hader could have struck out looking there, too, you didn’t need to take him out of the game to achieve that result. Here’s Cain with two outs: Julio Urias and Ryan Madson. Cain doubles with two outs, bringing up the husk that used to contain Christian Yelich’s essence. It’ll be Urias facing him here in this huge spot.

Yes, yes I know Yelich homered earlier. I keep telling my wife Yelich is great, though, and he keeps being bad in the NLCS, and it’s making it look like I don’t know what I’m talking about. Do something else, Christian, for my marriage!

Well, he tried, but Chris Taylor just made a ridiculous catch in left that kept this from being a tie game. It’s still 2-1, Dodgers, after five in Milwaukee.

4th inning: Manny Machado isn’t up very long for booing purposes, as he rips a single up the middle against Hader. The Dodgers hope Bellinger up with Machado on base goes as well as it did last time it happened tonight.

Bellinger hits a soft grounder that gets the lead runner at second, so... not quite the same. At least Machado didn’t try to hurt anyone with his slide this time around. This brings up Puig, who crotch chopped on second last time he was up because I love him. This time, he hits a double play to end the top of the fourth. Hader’s thrown two scoreless so far, and used just 18 pitches to do it.

Travis Shaw gets the bottom of the fourth going with a double, so Aguilar strolls to the plate with a runner already in scoring position and no outs. Shaw crushed that ball, as it reached the wall out in right, and even Puig’s acrobatics couldn’t reel it in.

Aguilar does not have a similar at-bat, as he strikes out. That brings up Moustakas, who is 1-for-1 today. He’s now 1-for-2 after a routine fly to left field. Well, Erik Kratz, driving in Shaw is up to you now. It’s not to be: Buehler records his sixth strikeout, and it ends the threat in the bottom of the fourth. It’s 2-1, Los Angeles.

3rd inning: Not only do we get Josh Hader on the mound for the Brewers now, but Joc Pederson is out of the game — Kiké Hernandez is pinch-hitting for him. It did not go well: Hader struck him out on four pitches.

Max Muncy also struck out swinging. Justin Turner makes contact, but it’s a line out. The Dodgers don’t score, but hey, they’re still up 2-1.

Lorenzo Cain gets a single because Hernandez went in the wrong direction after contact — whoops — but he’s bailed out right after by a double play that Yelich hit into. Yelich doing something good two plate appearances in a row would be something new in this series. If he was doing even okay, the Brewers might already be in the World Series. Alas.

Kudos to Machado for that throw to first on the double play, by the way. Say what you will about his hustle or whatever but he can throw.

Braun’s up with the bases empty, which is not ideal. He strikes out on a 97 mph fastball, which is even less ideal. It’s 2-1 Dodgers three innings into Game 7.

2nd inning: You can tell Manny Machado is up, because the chorus of incessant boos are back — interrupted only by cheers for when there is a strike. He went 0-for-4 yesterday amid these boos. Now, it probably wasn’t the boos that made him go hitless. It was the poor decisions he made at which balls to swing at. But still, it must feel good to boo like that and then see the target of your boos fail on a national stage again and again!

I wouldn’t know, I don’t boo at baseball games. I save that for wrestling events.

Machado bunts for a hit on the 3-2 count, and he hoofs it down the line to give the Dodges a baserunner. That worked a lot better than his other swings in this plate appearance, good adjustment by Machado.

The crowd is now chanting, “You still suck” at Machado, they are not going to be deterred.

Cody Bellinger is up — he’s another Dodger with a low OPS this October, and has yet to go deep this postseason. And hey, that just changed right after I typed that fact that is no longer a fact: it’s now 2-1 Dodgers thanks to a Bellinger blast to right.

Yasiel Puig follows up with a double to right — Chacin isn’t having his best start right now. Luckily for the Brewers, if this continues, they’ve got a fully rested Josh Hader, Joakim Soria, and a bunch of pitchers who were on the mound in Game 6 but aren’t overworked.

Chris Taylor hits a grounder and doesn’t advance Puig to third. That’s only the first out of the inning, though, so the Dodgers still have a couple of chances to bring their runner in scoring position home. Hader, by the way, is already up in the bullpen: Craig Counsell is not going to take any chances in this Game 7.

Austin Barnes pops out to shallow center, and Puig is still sitting there at second. That brings up the pitcher, Buehler — can he pop off a single to drive in Puig and give himself a bit more cushion?

If he can, he didn’t here. It’s 2-1, Dodgers.

It’s Jesús Aguilar against Buehler to kick off the bottom of the second. It does not go well for Aguilar, who strikes out for the first out of the inning. Here’s Mike Moustakas, acquired by the Brewers from the Royals before the trade deadline. He places it just past the shift in right field, and Milwaukee has a baserunner for Erik Kratz.

Kratz puts a charge into one to deep left, but not deep enough. Two down, bringing up Orlando Arcia. The Brewers are probably hoping for the inning to extend here, so that the pitcher’s spot can come up before Hader takes the mound: that way, he won’t lead off the bottom of the third.

Wish granted for Milwaukee: Arcia hits a single, pushing Moustakas into scoring position, and giving the Brewers the chance to pinch-hit for Chacin with Jonathan Schoop. Schoop just grounds out, but at least the Brewers get to start the bottom of the third with Cain instead of Hader at the plate.

1st inning: Well, let’s just start this off with a bit of honesty:

The Brewers rarely make it to this stage — their last World Series appearance was in 1982, and between then and now the only other LCS they appeared in came in 2011. They’ve yet to win a World Series at all. The Dodgers haven’t won since 1988, and this is what their postseason time has looked like in between then and now:

1995: Swept in NLDS

1996: Swept in NLDS

2004: Lost NLDS 3-1

2006: Swept in NLDS

2008: Lost NLCS 4-1

2009: Lost NLCS 4-1

2013: Lost NLCS 4-2

2014: Lost NLDS 3-1

2015: Lost NLDS 3-2

2016: Lost NLCS 4-2

2017: Lost World Series 4-3

That’s a lot of success relative to the Brewers, but they’ve got the same number of rings since 1989 despite it: zero. Which fan base will hurt more after Game 7 wraps up? It’s difficult to measure, impossible even, because we’re talking about two very different kinds of pain. The point, the tl;dr of it all, is that losing is going to suck. Welcome to Game 7!

Joc Pederson leads off for the Dodgers, despite getting hit on the hand with a 96 mph pitch just last night. He grounds out to first base to open the game, bringing up Max Muncy. They’re facing Jhoulys Chacín, by the way, who is good and has been good despite the way the media and broadcasters and even fans seem to treat him.

Muncy draws a walk, which we can designate as Med. Muncy. That brings up Justin Turner with a runner on, and he embarrassed a ball boy on national television. Y I K E S, my friend.

Speaking of yikes, Turner, who is having an uncharacteristically poor postseason, hits into a double play to end the top of the first.

Here’s Walker Buehler for the Dodgers. He gave up four runs in seven innings against the Brewers last time out in a start that was great outside of one meltdown that never really showed signs of repeating. It was a weird start! The Dodgers need him to not have that kind of inning this time around.

Cain goes down swinging to open up Buehler’s start. That brings up Christian Yelich, who is legitimately awesome, but has been shy about sharing that fact with postseason viewers. Here, though, he hits a solo homer, and it’s now 1-0 Brewers. Yasiel Puig got so close to catching it:

Puig was so close that, if the Dodgers end up losing this game, there’s your visual metaphor for their season. Ever so close, thanks to their talent, but not close enough in the end.

Buehler doesn’t go into meltdown mode like last time, and gets Ryan Braun and Travis Shaw out to put an end to the first inning. Milwaukee’s got a 1-0 lead, which isn’t insurmountable or anything, but probably feels like hell after watching their Game 6 dismantling of the Dodgers.

After a throng of relatively quick series, we finally have a winner-take-all contest in the 2018 playoffs. The National League Championship Series has its Game 7 on Saturday night (8:09 p.m. ET, FS1, Fox Sports Go, fuboTV), with the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers fighting for the right to face the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

The Brewers tied things up by jumping on Hyun-jin Ryu for four runs in the first inning of Game 6 on Friday, and never looked back. It forces the first Game 7 for Milwaukee since the 1982 World Series.

Jhoulys Chacin gets the ball for the Brewers to start Game 7, having not allowed a run in 10 innings this postseason. That includes a win in Game 3 over the Dodgers in Los Angeles where he outdueled Walker Buehler, who starts for Los Angeles on Saturday.

Brewers pitching has done a tremendous job on the Dodgers in this NLCS, holding them to just three runs per game. The Dodgers led the National League in runs scored during the regular season (4.93 per game), but is hitting just .210/.293/.293 in this series against the Brewers.

This is the 112nd winner-take-all game in MLB postseason history. The home team is 55-56 in these games. In the League Championship Series, home teams are 17-9 in such games, including 11-5 in Games 7.