LOS ANGELES — The National League Championship Series has shifted to Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a daunting but not impossible 2-0 hole. One year after sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers in this series, Los Angeles has seen its offense yet to fully show up, while Milwaukee now holds the commanding lead as it tries for its first World Series appearance in 44 years.
History shows the climb is steep. Even with potentially three straight games at home at Dodger Stadium, teams leading a best-of-7 series 2-0 have won 79 of 95 times in MLB postseason history, an 83.2 percent success rate. Last season illustrated both sides of that math, as the Dodgers and Seattle Mariners each won the first two games of their League Championship Series on the road — Los Angeles completed a sweep of the Brewers at home, while the Toronto Blue Jays rallied from 2-0 down to beat Seattle in seven games to reach the Fall Classic.
This is the fifth time during the Dodgers' 14-year postseason streak that they have trailed 2-0 in a best-of-7 series, and the franchise has trailed 2-0 thirteen times overall, coming back to win four of those series for a 30.8 percent comeback rate. The club has survived two-game skids in each of its last two title runs, dropping Games 2 and 3 of the 2024 NL Division Series to the San Diego Padres before winning the final two games to advance, and dropping Games 4 and 5 of the 2025 World Series to the Blue Jays at home before taking Games 6 and 7 on the road in Toronto. The current deficit follows Milwaukee's 7-4 rally in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead.
Recent NLCS history offers both warning and hope. The Dodgers lost the first two games by one run each on the road before taking two of three at home in Los Angeles, then were blown out in Game 6 in St. Louis behind Clayton Kershaw. They dropped the first two games at Fenway Park in 2018, won a classic 18-inning Game 3, then blew a 4-0 lead after six innings in Game 4 and were throttled in Game 5. In the pandemic season at Globe Life Field in Texas, Los Angeles lost the first two games as the home team, scored a record 11 runs in the first inning to win Game 3, lost Game 4, then won three straight to snap a 32-year championship drought. In 2021, the 106-win Dodgers, with ailing aces Max Scherzer, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias, lost the first two games in walk-off fashion to the 88-win Atlanta Braves, pulled out a comeback win in Game 3 and got three home runs from Chris Taylor in Game 5 to force a return to Atlanta before Eddie Rosario and Atlanta closed it in Game 6.
The franchise ledger runs deeper. Brooklyn dropped the first two games in Boston in 1916, including Babe Ruth's 14-inning complete-game win in Game 2, and lost in five. In 1947 the Dodgers dropped the first two at Yankee Stadium before a walk-off win spoiled Bill Bevens' no-hitter bid in Game 4, with the Yankees winning Game 7 at home. The breakthrough came in 1955, when the home team won the first six games and Johnny Podres delivered a 2-0 win at Yankee Stadium in Game 7 for the Dodgers' first World Series title. Sandy Koufax struck out 10 in his second shutout in four days to clinch Game 7 in Minnesota in 1965 after Don Drysdale and Koufax lost the first two on the road. Low points included 1966, when Willie Davis made three errors in the fifth inning of Game 2 against Baltimore and Los Angeles failed to score over the final 33 innings in a sweep, and 1977, when the Yankees outscored Los Angeles 28-8 over the final four games after the Dodgers won the first two. The turnaround came in 1981, when Los Angeles dropped the first two in New York, then won three at Dodger Stadium behind Jerry Reuss out-dueling Ron Guidry 2-1 in Game 5 on back-to-back seventh-inning home runs by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager, before a 9-2 win in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium with Steve Howe recording a 3 2/3-inning save. In 2008, Los Angeles dropped the first two in Philadelphia, won Game 3 at home, then saw Matt Stairs change Game 4 before Cole Hamels and Philadelphia won the pennant.