Contreras powers Brewers to 2-0 NLCS lead, vows Milwaukee will 'keep going'

MILWAUKEE — Do the Brewers play a distinctive style of baseball? Their manager says no. After two games of seeing it in action during the National League Championship Series, the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers might beg to differ.

Riding a big night at the plate from William Contreras, a top-to-bottom grinding approach against star Dodgers righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a perfect night from their red-hot bullpen, the Brewers beat the Dodgers 7-4 on Monday, seizing control of the NLCS with a 2-0 edge.

For Milwaukee, it’s only a start.

“Keep going, keep going,” Contreras said. “The goal is not to think about where we’re at. Regardless of where we’re going, who we’re playing against, the goal is just to focus on doing our jobs and executing our jobs.”

Yamamoto, who threw a complete game against Milwaukee during the Dodgers’ NLCS sweep a year ago, didn’t make it out of the third inning. The patient, contact-oriented, hand-off-the-baton team approach the Brewers have featured all season was on full display.

Yamamoto induced just four swing-and-misses in 75 pitches as the Brewers averaged 5.3 pitches per plate appearance while he was on the mound. The avatar for the grinder the Brewers put him through was Jake Bauers’ 12-pitch walk in the third, one batter before Yamamoto was pulled. It was a very Brewers at-bat.

“He’s a great pitcher,” Bauers said. “There’s not a lot to do damage on when he’s on the mound. That being said, the kind of the approach that we’ve cultivated here, I think it plays against anybody if we execute it well.”

With Yamamoto out of the game, the contest turned into a seesaw affair, largely thanks to an uncharacteristically leaky Brewers defense that contributed to each of the Dodgers’ four runs. Both teams committed a pair of errors in the game.

Contreras tied the game with a homer to center in the fifth, then put the Brewers ahead with an RBI single in the sixth. Meanwhile, the Dodgers didn’t realize it, but for all intents and purposes, their night at the plate was already over.

Four Brewers relievers — Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby — combined to throw five perfect innings, continuing a stunning run of excellence for one of the game’s top relief staffs. Milwaukee relievers have allowed one earned run over 28â…” innings so far in the playoffs for a 0.31 ERA.

“We just go out there and compete and compete, pitch by pitch,” Uribe said. “Doesn’t matter what the situation, just compete.”

According to ESPN Research, the performance by Milwaukee’s bullpen in Game 2 marked the first time in playoff history a team has posted five perfect relief innings in order.

For Milwaukee’s Game 1 and Game 2 starting pitchers — Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson, neither of whom got out of the fifth inning — it’s quite a comfort to know what’s coming when they leave the mound.

“They’ve been sensational all year,” Henderson said. “It’s really fun to watch. We’ve got the ultimate trust in those guys. For them to do it time in and time out, it’s awesome.”

Other than the defensive miscues, the Brewers have displayed most of the characteristics so far in the series that helped them win an MLB-high and franchise-record 103 games this season. Patient at-bats. Contact hitting. An ability to hit to the situation. And that lockdown bullpen.

Taken as a whole, it’s a package that many have taken to calling “Brewers Ball.” Not among them is Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who said before the game, “I don’t think we play any different than anybody else. I really don’t. And I hear it a lot. ‘Oh, I love the way you guys play.'”

Murphy loves to be playfully coy in his media gatherings, so it’s sometimes hard to evaluate the veracity of some of his observations. Either way, he certainly liked what he saw from his team in Game 2.

“This year, they don’t want to be denied, and they’re going against arguably one of the best teams in baseball ever put together,” Murphy said. “And they don’t care. They won’t be denied. It starts with the dude behind the dish.”

That dude, Contreras, enjoyed a signature performance with both his offensive heroics and his work with the pitchers. If he has been overlooked at times nationally, his teammates certainly appreciate what he brings to the table.

“It’s amazing,” Misiorowski said. “That dude’s unreal. It’s awesome to have him behind the plate.”

Ashby finished it off, recording the last five outs after facing seven batters during Game 1 less than 24 hours earlier. But one hot reliever can’t do it alone in the postseason, and Ashby is far from the only one leveling up in the bullpen.

“It’s just like it feels like [Contreras] is throwing down the right signs,” Ashby said. “The guys are executing, believing in what we’ve planned to do. That’s what it’s supposed to look like.”

More than anything, that’s how Brewers Ball is best described — everyone knowing their job in every moment and focusing on the task in front of them. It has gotten the Brewers this far, and if they keep executing it like they have in the first two games against the Dodgers, it’ll take them where they haven’t been since 1982 — the World Series.

But first looms a trip to Dodger Stadium against a dynasty still hoping to become the first National League club to win three championships in a row. The Brewers know there is plenty of series remaining.

“The job is far from far from over,” Ashby said. “Everyone in here respects the team across the field immensely.”