The New Truths Revealed After Dodgers vs. Brewers NLCS Game 2, Guardians vs. Rays ALCS Game 1

Behind a monster performance from catcher William Contreras and great work from their bullpen, the Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 in Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday. Milwaukee now leads 2-0, and the series will shift to Dodger Stadium.

Meanwhile, just two days after completing a comeback to eliminate the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS, the Cleveland Guardians went to Tropicana Field and emerged with a 7-3 ALCS Game 1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Let's take a look at some new truths revealed after Game 2 of the NLCS and Game 1 of the ALCS.

Curt Schilling, Madison Bumgarner, Andy Pettitte—whoever you think the greatest postseason pitcher in MLB history is —Yoshinobu Yamamoto became their peer after winning the 2025 World Series MVP.

He's still a peer, but Monday evening was definitely a bump in the road. With the Dodgers needing him to be a stopper after a Game 1 loss, Yamamoto lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing four hits, walking two and surrendering three earned runs.

The third inning for the Brewers was a masterclass in making an opposing starting pitcher use bullets:

David Hamilton led off with a single on the sixth pitch of his at-bat.

With one out, Brice Turang drew a walk on the sixth pitch he saw.

Conteras flew out to center field with runners on first and second, but only after making Yamamoto throw seven more pitches.

The cherry on top was a 12-pitch at-bat from Jake Bauers , who ultimately drew a walk to load the bases.

With the bases loaded, Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich singled to center, driving in two runs and sending Yamamoto to the showers.

Yamamoto still has a remarkable 2.47 ERA over 12 career postseason outings. But for at least a day, he seemed mortal. We'll see if he gets a chance to start again later in the series, likely if it were to shift back to Milwaukee for a Game 6.

William Contreras Is Becoming the Star of This Postseason

The aforementioned Yamamoto was the biggest star last postseason. Contreras appears to be coming for the crown in 2026.

Contreras entered Game 2 hitting .316 this postseason, and had another big performance Monday. The previously mentioned value of his seven-pitch at-bat in the third inning in wearing out Yamamoto, despite it ultimately ending in an out. Sandwiched around that were a first-inning RBI single, fifth-inning solo homer and sixth-inning RBI single and eighth-inning walk:

For what it's worth, Contreras has just three career at-bats against projected Game 3 starter Blake Snell, but he's 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Recent history suggests the Brewers could trade Contreras in the offseason, since 2027 will be his contract year. In the meantime, though, he's been key in getting the Crew to within two wins of their first World Series appearance since 1982.

Shohei Ohtani Might Just Be a Non-Factor

This may end up on Old Takes Exposed. After all, Ohtani is arguably the greatest player in MLB history. It's probably a mistake to underestimate him.

At the same time, while a left knee injury seemed to be the key reason he ended his season as a pitcher, a shoulder injury seems to be affecting him even more right now. He went 0-for-4 in Game 2, striking out twice. FOX's John Smoltz has pointed out multiple times that Ohtani seems non-competitive on pitches up in the zone right now because of his shoulder. These are pitches you're used to seeing Ohtani hit 460 feet. Instead, he's late on them.

As hard as it is to imagine, manager Dave Roberts revealed postgame that he plans to talk with Ohtani about potentially leaving him out of the Game 3 lineup, as reported by Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

It's really, really hard to win back-to-back World Series titles. The Dodgers did that, even though Ohtani was less than 100 percent in the first of those two October runs. But he hasn't homered since Aug. 18, and the Dodgers seem much less like a juggernaut when you don't have to worry about Ohtani hitting every mistake into the second deck.

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José Ramírez Is Finally Having His Signature October

With seven All-Star Game selections and six Silver Slugger Awards, José Ramírez is almost certainly headed to Cooperstown when his career concludes.

Despite his greatness, he hasn't been elite in the playoffs. Ramírez—who was just 23 when Cleveland lost to the Chicago Cubs in a seven-game 2016 World Series—entered this postseason as a career .240 hitter in the playoffs.

With Ramírez hitting just .229 and posting a .598 OPS after the All-Star Break as he played through a left-hand injury, it hardly seemed like October was his chance to turn his fortunes around. But he drove in seven runs over the final three games of the ALDS, allowing the Guardians to storm back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the White Sox in five games.

The face of the franchise picked up where he left off in Game 1 of the ALCS, going 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI that helped the Guards to steal the opening tilt.

Even after winning Game 1, the Guardians still seem like underdogs to beat the Rays in this series, who led the AL with 98 regular-season wins. But if Ramírez had any postseason demons prior to this year, he's exorcised them over the last week.

He'll enter Game 2 having collected 17 total bases in his last four games.

The Chase DeLauter Star Turn Might Be Here

Remember when Chase DeLauter homered four times in Cleveland's first three regular-season games and made everyone wonder whether he would finish his rookie season with a gaudy home run total? Ultimately, he settled for a more modest 16, but did so while batting .287 with a 131 OPS+ (100 is league average).

DeLauter was pretty productive against the White Sox during the ALDS, recording five hits in the final four games of the series. However, the 25-year-old took things to another level in Game 1 of the ALCS.

A sixth-inning homer was the big blow, but hardly the only damage DeLauter did Monday. He recorded three hits, while also drawing a walk and scoring three runs:

Even in a weak AL, it was fair to wonder whether the Guardians had enough firepower to make a deep postseason run. Ramírez's resurgence, coupled with DeLauter coming of age, has the Guardians three wins away from a trip to the Fall Classic.

ALCS Game 1 Served As Reminder of How Important Unlikely Heroes Are in October

For all the focus on stars like Ramírez and Junior Caminero in this series, Game 1 saw some unlikely heroes emerge.

Cedric Mullins may be one of the more recognizable names on the Rays nationally, but he didn't have a strong season after signing for $7 million in the offseason. The former All-Star hit 15 home runs during the regular season, but did so while batting .205 with an underwhelming .628 OPS. Nonetheless, he had one of the game's big swings, taking an eighth-inning offer from Erik Sabrowski and hitting it out of the park, which cut the deficit to one run at the time.

It was Nathaniel Lowe —who posted just a .650 OPS after being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds—that delivered a two-run single for the Guardians in the eighth:

An inning prior to Lowe's big hit, Patrick Bailey destroyed one 436 feet, hitting his second homer in three games. When the Guardians acquired Bailey from the San Francisco Giants in May, he was hitting just .146 with a .396 OPS.

By this stage of the postseason, every team has star power. It can be some of these unlikely heroes that ultimately determine which team has a parade.