The Milwaukee Brewers arrived at Game 4 of the NLCS with a sweep in reach and the Los Angeles Dodgers one loss from the end of their postseason. The game was scheduled for 6 p.m. ET Friday at Dodger Stadium, and it could decide whether the reigning champions survive another night.
That is why Dodgers Vs search traffic is spiking now: Milwaukee was trying to finish a four-game rout and move on to the World Series for the first time since 1982. If the Brewers do that, Game 4 becomes the finale of the NLCS. If they do not, the Dodgers stay alive long enough to force the series deeper into the weekend.
The stakes were sharpened by what had already happened in the postseason on Thursday. Petey Halpin, who began the season in Triple-A, hit a go-ahead two-run home run for the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 at Progressive Field, a blast that traveled 385 feet and gave Cleveland a 2-1 ALCS lead. It was his first postseason homer and came after he had four big league home runs before Thursday, all in the regular season.
Halpin’s moment also showed how quickly October can turn on one swing. He drove a 96 mph sinker from Griffin Jax into the right-field seats, and Cleveland’s pitching held up behind him. Gavin Williams struck out nine in five innings, the Rays struck out 13 times overall, and Junior Caminero finished 0-for-4 with four strikeouts as Tampa Bay’s low-strikeout offense unraveled.
The Dodgers were dealing with a different kind of pressure in Los Angeles. Andy Pages put them ahead 1-0 in the second inning with a base hit up the middle, Shohei Ohtani broke his slump with a three-run home run to make it 4-0, and Mookie Betts made a sharp play on a deflection. Those are the kind of swings that can steady a series, but they also underscored how little margin the Dodgers had left against a Milwaukee team that keeps pressing forward.
There was, though, one complication that could rewrite the night. Rain in the forecast Friday gave Game 4 a chance to slip to Saturday even though it was set for 6 p.m. ET. If that happens, Game 5 would move to Sunday, and the clubs would give up the travel day they would normally have before a potential Game 6 in Tampa Bay on Monday. That is the hidden cost of weather in October: one delay does not just move a game, it can bend the rest of the series with it.
So the question now is not only whether the Dodgers can extend the NLCS. It is whether they can do it on Friday night, before the weather and the Brewers both close the door.
