The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers will go head-to-head in the National League Championship Series for a second consecutive season. Milwaukee was the best team in baseball during the regular season, but LA has won back-to-back World Series championships. The Dodgers also cruised to a series sweep over the Brewers a season ago in the NLCS. This Brewers team will have a better opportunity to upset the two-time defending champions, however.

Will Milwaukee find a way to win the series? Which players will step up? Is Shohei Ohtani going to break out of his slump? Without further ado, here are three bold predictions for the NLCS between the Brewers and Dodgers.

Christian Yelich finds his MVP form

There was a time when Yelich was considered to be one of the best players in all of MLB. He even won the NL MVP back in 2018.

At 34 years old, Yelich — who officially became the Brewers' captain a couple of weeks ago — is not the same player he once was. With that being said, he's still more than capable of making a significant impact. He has played in multiple postseasons now, but Yelich has yet to lead a team to the World Series. His motivation is going to be through the roof heading into this series.

I'll be the first to admit this is more of a gut feeling prediction rather than one based purely on numbers. I believe Yelich is going to have a monster series amid his quest to finally lead the Brewers to the Fall Classic. Yelich isn't the primary focus for opposing pitchers anymore, so he may be able to take advantage of that and get some good pitches to hit.

Shohei Ohtani records less than 3 total hits, doesn't hit home run

Unlike Yelich, Ohtani is still among the best players in the game. Many still consider him to be the best player in the sport given his two-way prowess as a hitter and pitcher. Since returning from an injury in September, Ohtani has struggled at the plate. He's strictly limited to hitting right now, but Shohei's offensive production has not been ideal.

The Brewers have one of the best all-around pitching staffs in the sport. While it would not be surprising to see Ohtani find his footing and bounce back, the prediction here is that he will have less than three total hits in the series while failing to record a single home run. This prediction is quite the contrast to last year, as Ohtani had a game where he hit three home runs in a single contest against the Brewers (in addition to recording 10 strikeouts on the mound).

Brewers win in 6 games

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Is any team really going to upset the Dodgers? If it is going to happen, then this is the series for it.

Milwaukee can have ace Jacob Misiorowski start twice in the series. He could even pitch three times if necessary, with a bullpen appearance not out of the question. The remainder of the Brewers' rotation is strong as well, and the Dodgers' lineup does have some questions despite still featuring depth.

If Yelich does lead the offense like I previously predicted he will, Milwaukee's lineup is going to score some runs. If the Brewers can contain Ohtani, the Dodgers' lineup will struggle to find consistent success.

In an especially bold prediction, I believe the Brewers will stun the Dodgers and defeat them in the NLCS without even needing a seventh game.