Turang homers, Milwaukee's bullpen stars as Brewers beat Dodgers in NLCS opener

Brice Turang had one sweet swing, Luis Lara delivered and Milwaukee's bullpen was terrific once again.

Looking for a breakthrough, the Brewers are off to a flying start in the NL Championship Series.

Turang homered off Tarik Skubal and four Milwaukee relievers shut down the Los Angeles Dodgers after Jacob Misiorowski's taxing outing, sending the Brewers to a 2-1 victory in Game 1 on Sunday night.

Lara hit a tiebreaking single off Skubal in the fifth inning as Milwaukee jumped ahead in the first NLCS matchup of 100-win teams since the Cincinnati Reds eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies in 1976. Milwaukee had dropped seven consecutive post-season games against Los Angeles, including a sweep in last year's NLCS.

The Brewers are among five current teams that have never won it all.

"The dream for me is to win the World Series," Lara said through an interpreter. "That will be the dream moment, is we're able to complete that. Obviously very happy that I was able to come through and come through for my teammates."

Game 2 is on Monday in Milwaukee. Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts for the Dodgers, and Logan Henderson takes the mound for the Brewers.

Los Angeles, looking to become the first team to win three straight championships since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, grounded into three double plays, stranded nine runners and went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 2 for 22 in the playoffs.

"You can't go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "It's going to be a long series. We knew it coming in."

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