MILWAUKEE — After a three-day hiatus, Los Angeles is back in business Sunday when it opens the 2026 National League Championship Series against Milwaukee at American Family Field. The Game 1 pitching matchup is the headliner, with Tarik Skubal slated to start for Los Angeles against soon-to-be National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski.
Skubal was handed the ball for Game 1 of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves and allowed just one run while striking out seven across six innings. Fresh off a full week of rest, he will get the ball again to kick off the NLCS. Mike Petriello of MLB.com broke down how rare the Skubal-Misiorowski pairing is compared with historic postseason matchups, writing, "If a rare matchup of 100-win teams in the NLCS isn't good enough, if a rematch of last year's NLCS – and the third time since 2018 – isn't good enough, there's this, too. You just don't really see starting pitching matchups like this, really ever. We're incredibly fortunate to get this one, potentially twice in the next week."
The duel is another rigorous test for Los Angeles in its quest for a third consecutive championship, and for a struggling Shohei Ohtani in particular. The two-way star will have to bounce back offensively against one of the National League's premier young aces. Manager Dave Roberts said he still has confidence Ohtani will turn things around, and Ohtani worked in extra batting practice while Los Angeles prepared at American Family Field, per Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times. "There's nothing right now I'm going to hang my hat on outside of, I just believe in the person and the talent," Roberts said in a conference call Friday. "I do think that getting a couple days out of a game environment to kind of work on his swing, rest the body, rest the mind is a benefit. I'm just never going to count Shohei out."
Max Muncy provided a lighter note ahead of the series. The infielder has elected to stay at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee despite its notoriety as a "haunted" hotel, per Grant Young of the California Post. "If there's a ghost there, come on in. If the TV turns on, I know he's friendly. Hopefully he's just not there to disturb me. I welcome them. If there's a ghost, let's have a good time with it, come on in. It is what it is," he added.