Man, Your Old Friend Turned the Night on Its End: Brice Turang Tipped Game 1 to the Crew

A playoff game starts like an arm-wrestling match. The opponents make contact, feel one another out for a moment, and then there's a sudden tension, as each side tries to flatten the other and win the prize—but meets almost perfectly equal resistance from the other. Both sides knew what was coming, after all. The real strategy lies in not letting the momentary wobble of that first grapple destabilize you. Clear that hurdle, and you can settle in for the long application of power and pressure that is the real substance of the fight.

The 2026 National League Championship Series started that way. The Dodgers and Brewers rushed at each other at full force, right away, but each side knew there would be no instant knockout. Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts hit a sharp grounder that force Brice Turang to cross the bag at a run and throw on the move to first base, his body only half-turned to his target. No problem. Out No. 1. Freddie Freeman lashed a line-drive single to left field in the first inning, and right away, the visitors were putting impressive swings on Jacob Misiorowski. Will Smith hit a smash, too, but this one was on the ground. Cooper Pratt fielded it slickly and got the ball to Turang, whose turn was the highlight of the play. A twin killing got Milwaukee's ace out of the first frame.

Just like those locked-in bicep warriors, though, the two sides kept the pressure on one another. For Los Angeles, that meant another rally right away in the second, and this one produced a run. It could have produced more, too, but with the bases loaded, Enrique Hernándeza hit a ball into the hole at short. Pratt came up with it again, and did well to get his shoulders turned and make a strong throw to Turang to retire the lead runner. That seemed sure to be all they would get, though; the ball wasn't even hit that hard. No. Turang got off a perfect and near-instantaneous sidearm relay, retiring Hernández to end the inning and nullify the run that nearly crossed the plate to double the Dodger advantage.

Already, Turang was the key man at the keystone, keeping a messy game from truly getting that way. When he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the fourth, though, the Dodgers still led 1-0. Tarik Skubal was outpitching Misiorowski, and it wasn't especially close. He was throwing strikes with four or five different pitches; Misiorowski was spraying even his fastball. Worse, the Brewers showed little feel for what Skubal was trying to do, and were getting themselves out.

Turang was the second batter to see him for a second time, and the first to make the proper adjustment. He laid off two four-seamers away, where Skubal was living with that pitch all night. (One of them could have been a strike, but it wasn't called so, and Will Smith did not challenge it.) On 2-0, Skubal sensibly tried a sinker, coming back to the arm side of the plate and running in on Turang. It was the right pitch in the context of the at-bat, in that if Turang was looking for more hard stuff away or even hunching on a get-me-over breaking ball, he'd have been way ahead of the pitch. He wasn't, though. The pitch ran right into Turang's newly made swing's wheelhouse, and he hit what is his trademark home run: a slicing drive just over the wall in left-center field. It was a beautiful piece of hitting.

The game was tied, but the crowd was just getting its chance to come loose. They carried the Brewers the rest of the way. Misiorowski's night was imperfect; he'll have to try again in his third postseason start to put up a line worthy of his imminent Cy Young Award winner status. Pat Murphy only trusted the ball to his four trustworthy relievers, though, and they held firm. The Brewers threatened to tack on runs more than the Dodgers threatened to tip the game back in their favor. Abner Uribe's emotional strikeout celebration to end the sixth inning will live long in the memories of Brewers fans. Ditto for Garrett Mitchell's fist pump (tuned to a Gane 5 win in a 2-2 series, arguably, more than to sealing Game 1) when he caught the final out. The crowd was charged up. So was the team. They've hungered for a year for this chance to prove that last season's defeat wasn't inevitable—that they're formidable opponents for the Dodgers, as much as the Dodgers are for them.

Turang wasn't as emotive as his teammates. He was the icicle to the heart when the team needed a killing blow, though. He showed his teammates that Skubal was mortal; they went and got the lead an inning later. He played gorgeous defense all night. He even laid down a late sacrifice bunt. In Game 1, he shed the hircine nubs that some fans saw sprouting from his head after three straight poor playoff series. Turang is an essential piece of the Brewers' winning machinery. That machine is humming now. One game in, they're one game closer to winning the NLCS than they've been since 2018.

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