​After the Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 of the NLDS, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked by reporters when he’d rather face the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres in the NLCS.”I just want chaos,” he said, drenched in beer as the clubhouse celebration ensued.Two hours later, Friedman would have his answer. The Brewers punched their ticket, securing a rematch of the previous year’s championship series. Don’t expect a Dodgers sweep this time, though.Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy loves to break out the “David vs. Goliath” narrative whenever his team plays the Dodgers and their exorbitant payroll. He’ll wax poetic about how nobody can name their lineup compared to the star-studded roster in the other dugout. How they’re “little woodpeckers” that just keep pecking away at the money tree that stands between them and their first pennant since 1982.Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isn’t buying it.”They have the best record in baseball,” Roberts told reporters on Friday. “They have that for a reason, and they’ve got home-field advantage. So we got to play our best baseball. I mean, they’re certainly not afraid of us. They’ve got the guy who’s going to win the Cy Young in the National League, starting Game 1.”We got our work cut out.”That they do. This year’s Brewers are not the team that the Dodgers swept in 2025. They somehow got better after parting ways with Freddy Peralta and Caleb Durbin. Jacob Misiorowski and Jackson Chourio both took a leap this season, and Chourio’s much healthier than when he was hampered by a hamstring injury last October. Logan Henderson is a bonafide No. 2 starter behind the Miz, and the back end of their bullpen has two anchors in Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe. Here are three key factors that will decide the NLCS:The Dodgers need to manufacture runsThe Dodgers offense has been streaky all season, but they haven’t lacked for slugging. That carried over into the postseason, where they’ve led all teams with eight home runs in October. On the other hand, they were mostly unable to string hits and walks together against a depleted Braves pitching staff. It wasn’t until the second inning of Game 4 on Mauricio Dubón’s dropped pop up from Max Muncy allowed Shohei Ohtani to score that the Dodgers got their first run on a non-homer. Even then, they were still 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position until Andy Pages poked a two-out single up the middle to bring in the go-ahead runs in the seventh.The Dodgers offense doesn’t necessarily have to turn into the Brewers, who led the big leagues in team batting average and were fourth in stolen bases this season. But they’re up against a pitching staff that does not give up the long ball. Misiorowski, MLB’s strikeout leader in 2026, was third in expected slugging percentage (.255). Henderson, Megill and Uribe were all also in the top 20 in xSLG.LA can get guys on base, but they have to bring them home.Dodgers rotation depthAs formid