Game 1 of the National League Championship Series certainly delivered on Sunday night, as over 10.7 million people watched the Brewers and Dodgers play in Milwaukee.
According to FOX Sports PR, it was the most-watched opening League Championship Series game on Fox and Fox Deportes since 2005.
It was also the most-watched LCS telecast on any network since 2010 and saw a significant uptick in viewership compared to last year’s ALCS Game 1, as there was an increase of 104% in viewership.
Fox Sports PR also announced that the game’s viewership peaked at 12.4 million viewers from 8:00-8:15 PM ET.
The Brewers finished Game 1 of the series with a 2-1 win over the Dodgers, then capitalized on their momentum and took Game 2 on Monday night.
Dodgers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal had the shortest postseason outing of his career in Game 1, tossing five innings on 81 pitches and giving up five hits, two runs, two walks, and striking out seven batters.
Los Angeles’ bullpen held it down after Skubal departed by not giving up a run, but unfortunately, the Dodgers lineup couldn’t provide any run support.
Despite finding a way to crack National League CY Young Candidate, Jacob Misirowski and forcing him to exit the game after throwing 94 pitches, the Dodgers’ bats remained cold.
Finishing the night with seven hits in the box score, the Dodgers failed to find a way to bring those runners across home plate, including in the sixth, eighth, and ninth innings.
Although the Dodgers scored four runs in Game 2, they saw similar production out of their team as starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto had the shortest postseason performance of his career, tossing 2 ⅔ innings on 75 pitches.
The offense only mustered up three hits in the game and struck out nine times. Including four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, who went 0-for-4 in the game.
Ohtani has been facing one of the worst slumps of his career in the postseason, and has forced manager Dave Roberts to drop him down to the No.6 spot in the lineup for Game 3.
Game 3 of the NLCS is set to take place at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, with first pitch beginning at 5:00 p.m. Blake Snell will take the mound for Los Angeles, while Robert Gasser will get the start for Milwaukee.
