Red-hot Brewers hold on
With 12th straight win, they take 1-0 series lead before losing Saturday
MILWAUKEE — Reliever Brandon Woodruff stunned ace Clayton Kershaw with a solo home run and the normally shutdown Brewers bullpen barely held on as they beat the sloppy Dodgers 6-5 on Friday night in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
Hard-throwing Josh Hader and the Brewers earned their 12th straight win, one shy of the franchise record set to open the 1987 season.
The Dodgers scored three times in the eighth to make it 6-4, then nearly tied it in the ninth. Chris Taylor hit an RBI triple off center fielder Lorenzo Cain’s glove with two outs before Corey Knebel fanned Justin Turner to end it.
Manny Machado homered and drove in three runs for Dodgers, who committed four errors, including two by catcher Yasmani Grandal on passed balls.
Kershaw was hit hard in the shortest start of his spotty playoff career and was chased before he could retire in the fourth inning.
The three -time Cy Young Award winner holds the team records for playoff wins (eight), starts (21), innings (133) and strikeouts (144), but is just 8-8 with a 4.26 ERA in 26 career postseason appearances. The Dodgers dropped to 13-13 when Kershaw takes the mound in the playoffs.
Kershaw, 30, quieted some of those October questions when the Dodgers won the NL pennant last year for the first time since 1988, going 3-0 with a 3.82 ERA in six appearances. He pitched six sparkling innings in the NLCS-clinching victory at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, and worked four scoreless innings in relief in the Dodgers’ Game 7 loss to the Astros in the World Series.