It turned out that the National League Championship Series wasn’t just a battle between two talented teams—it was a complete showcase of the divide that’s there in baseball financially. And if the box scores didn’t make that clear, their reputations certainly did. On one hand, you have the Milwaukee Brewers, aka the “average joes” or the small-market miracle. On the other hand, you have the “evil empire of baseball,” a half-a-billion-dollar juggernaut. And when they met, no amount of heart, hustle, or talent could bridge the $365 million gap.

However, for much of the regular season, the Brewers defied both logic and the financial match. They ended up winning 97 games, topping the NL Central, and here is the kicker—they even swept the Dodgers in six meetings way back in July. You’d think the Pat Murphy team is ready to take out the big dogs from the race to the rings. But alas, as October came, Ohtani and co. turned the series into a one-sided spectacle.

This was capped by Shohei’s iconic Game 4, where he hit three home runs and struck out 10 across six innings in what fans are now calling The Shohei Ohtani Game. As Murphy later admitted, “The pitching performances by the Dodgers basically put the hammer down.” And true, they did put the hammer down—simply outspending and outplaying the Milwaukee Brewers to get another World Series berth, back-to-back.

But beneath it all lies a deeper issue, and it’s the Brewers’ payroll problem. ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle said it perfectly, “The Brewers are baseball’s best-run organization at present, and part of that is being disciplined in the payroll category without being outright cheap… Whether they match up with someone depends on the market, though, because overextending is not only not the Brewers’ way.” Their total payroll is sitting at just over $120 million, which is 35% of what the Dodgers are spending. So, yes, while Milwaukee’s blueprint is brilliant, after being swept aside by the richest powerhouse, it is clear that for Milwaukee, the biggest opponent won’t be the Dodgers next year—it will be their own payroll ceiling.

This discipline has long been what Milwaukee has followed, but it is clearly costing them. The Dodgers are going on a financial aggression that doesn’t match up to the smaller teams. They are reinvesting nearly three-quarters of their $752 million revenue directly into the payroll and luxury tax. They are not spending; they are dominating—and look at the players they have managed to get.

From Shohei Ohtani to Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell, they have the best players. And right now, more than money being the center point, the conversation is more towards the Dodgers being the winning team. Take Roki Sasaki, for example; he had no obligation to choose because money didn’t matter in his case, but even then, he chose the Dodgers. And LA is proving why they are well worth it. The truth is that several fans would be wishing their teams did the same, maybe the Milwaukee Brewers fans too!

The Dodgers didn’t fall for the Milwaukee Brewers’ underdog story!

There is no doubt that Pat Murphy might have been trying to play mind games. But in the end, it is looking more like he played himself! All season long, the Brewers manager couldn’t help but bring up the Dodgers topic, even when his own team deserved as much of a highlight. First, he joked that LA couldn’t name five players on the Brewers roster. By the time the NCLS rolled, that number suddenly became right. It was all part of Murphy’s “nobody believes in us” act, which is odd because this is the team that finished with baseball’s best record and went 6-0 against the Dodgers in the regular season.

However, not everyone bought into the “average joes” act, at least not Blake Snell, who, when asked, said, “I’m not falling for ‘Average Joes.’” Manager Dave Roberts, who once had coached alongside Murphy back in his San Diego days, was even more blunt, saying, “That’s just kind of how Murph is. He tries to get into a psyche, and he’s telling his team the opposite behind closed doors. We know the act.”

Honestly, Murphy’s strategy only got weirder as the series went on. After Blake Snell had a dominant Game 1 with an eight-one-hit inning, Murphy said, “Heck, somebody said Snell makes more money than our entire pitching staff. That’s for a reason, because he’s great.” Sure, it is a nice compliment, but maybe it is not the best time to boost the guy who just shut down your offense, right?

Now, if Murphy’s goal was to lure the Dodgers into thinking they were nothing and take them lightly, that didn’t work. The Dodgers had seen what the Brewers could do and outplayed them—maybe edged them in their own mind games.