The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Thursday to reach baseball’s World Series for the first time in 44 years.
The Dodgers, who have a massive $338 million (A$487 million) payroll, have had their hopes of a World Series three-peat crushed after winning back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025.
To put that into perspective, the Dodgers are spending more than the three remaining teams combined, with the Brewers, Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays having a combined payroll of $316 million.
It now means one of baseball’s small-market teams will take home the World Series title.
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The Brewers completed a 4-0 series sweep of the star-studded defending champions.
The top-seeded Brewers once again combined relentless offense with clinical relief pitching at Dodger Stadium to fight back from an early 4-0 deficit to snuff out the Dodgers’ hopes of a rare World Series three-peat.
The Brewers, who last reached the World Series in 1982, will face either the Cleveland Guardians or Tampa Bay Rays in baseball’s championship series.
“We’ve still got a ways to go. We’ve still got some big games in front of us,” Brewers team captain Christian Yelich said.
“We’ve been so close to this so many times. Credit to our guys, our team, they stuck together, battled. We got down early, we were like it’s gonna be a great story when we come back and win this.”
Brewers skipper Pat Murphy meanwhile said simply: “They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers. And the gamers won this week.”
After a lacklustre defeat in game three on Wednesday, the Dodgers had been left needing to become only the second team in Major League Baseball history to overturn a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series.
When Shohei Ohtani smashed a three-run home run deep into right field in the bottom of the second inning – the Japanese superstar’s first home run in nearly two months – Dodgers fans dared to dream of a miracle.
But Ohtani’s mammoth blast was to prove the highlight of another largely inconsistent performance by the Dodgers offense, who squandered a series of late opportunities to get back into the game after stranding runners on third base in multiple innings.
Instead it was the Brewers – swept 4-0 by the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series last year – who rallied to a deserved victory.
After initially struggling to find a way past Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, the Brewers carved out an opening in the fourth inning after Brice Turang and William Contreras got on base.
Jake Bauers, who was named series Most Valuable Player, stepped up to drive a double into right field and suddenly the Dodgers lead had been cut to 4-2.
David Hamilton singled to score Sal Frelick in the fifth inning to make it 4-3, and when Bauers drew a walk with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, the Brewers had drawn level.
Garrett Mitchell then homered for the second straight game in the sixth innning to put the Brewers 5-4 up and Hamilton added an insurance solo shot in the ninth to seal the win.
The Dodgers meanwhile left ruing an anemic offensive display that saw them fail to exploit a series of promising openings.
They failed to score in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings after getting a runner on third base, two of those occasions with only one out, and the defeat was sealed with a whimper as Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby mopped up the final three outs.
The Dodgers’ stunning exit has sparked plenty of reaction across the MLB world, with their massive payroll now a major talking point.
And with the league considering introducing a salary cap, the timing of their elimination has certainly raised a few eyebrows.
Miami Hurricanes beat writer Adam Lichtenstein was quick to poke fun at the Dodgers following their defeat.
“It’s a shame small-market teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers just can’t compete with large-payroll juggernauts like the Milwaukee Brewers,” Lichtenstein wrote on X.
“We need a salary cap now.”
Former ESPN writer Joon Lee also highlighted the massive difference in payroll between the Dodgers and the three teams still standing.
“The total 2026 payroll of the Dodgers: $338M. The total 2026 payrolls of the Brewers, Rays and Guardians: $316M,” Joon wrote on X.
“A small-market team will win the World Series this year.”
Front Office Sports also pointed out just how impressive the Brewers’ run has been, considering the money they have to work with compared to some of the league’s biggest teams.
“The Brewers are in MLB’s smallest market and rank 19th in payroll, but have one of the sport’s biggest baseball ops and data teams,” FOS wrote on X.
“They just swept the Dodgers and won their first-ever NL pennant.”
But while the Brewers are now preparing for their first World Series appearance in 44 years, there could be some massive changes coming to baseball.
Unlike the NBA, NFL and NHL, MLB doesn’t currently have a hard salary cap, meaning teams can spend as much as they want on players, although they can still be hit with luxury tax penalties.
That could soon change, with the league reportedly proposing a salary cap of around $245 million, which is $93 million less than what the Dodgers are currently spending.
It’s a massive difference, particularly for a team that has spent big in recent years to build one of the most star-studded rosters in baseball.
But getting a salary cap introduced won’t be easy.
Team owners are pushing for the change, while players are strongly against it and there are now concerns that the disagreement could lead to a lockout.
The current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires on December 1, 2026, meaning the two sides will need to come to an agreement before then to avoid a potential lockout.
A lockout wouldn’t automatically mean games are cancelled, but if the two sides can’t work things out, Spring Training and potentially even the start of the 2027 season could be impacted.