LOS ANGELES -- While the Brewers have the luxury to line themselves up for a National League Division Series date with the Braves, the Dodgers are fighting to the finish.

Milwaukee starter Eric Lauer surrendered a game-tying grand slam to Trea Turner in the fifth inning on Friday and Jandel Gustave gave up a go-ahead, pinch-hit home run in an ugly seventh as L.A. erased a big deficit to beat the Brewers, 8-6, while staying alive in the NL West race.

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The Dodgers are two games back of the Giants with two to play, and the stakes are significant. The runner-up has to host the Cardinals in a do-or-die NL Wild Card Game, where anything can happen. Just ask the 2019 Brewers.

For the ‘21 Brewers, meanwhile, this final regular-season series represents a fine line. On one hand, they know they will meet the Braves in the NLDS beginning next Friday in Milwaukee, and have been tapering starts while scripting reliever usage to some extent. That is why Josh Hader pitched the eighth inning on Thursday in St. Louis while the Brewers trailed.

It’s also why the seldom-used Gustave not only pitched multiple late innings of a game that was tied the next night, he stayed in Friday’s game after Matt Beaty launched a tie-breaking home run with one out. And after Gustave subsequently hit a batter and threw two wild pitches to plate another run in what became a three-run seventh for the Dodgers.

“Once we were down, I wanted Gustave to get through the inning,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who eventually was forced to go and get him in favor of Brent Suter.

On the other hand, teams are cognizant of the integrity of the pennant races, and the Brewers know that folks in San Francisco expect Milwaukee to put its best foot forward.

“We haven't talked about the Braves, to be perfectly honest,” Counsell said as the Brewers took batting practice Friday afternoon. “We've got three games here. We have to make sure we're not missing anything here, get things done right for everybody here.

“But obviously, now that you know your opponent, you can start spending some time, and we will. We'll start spending some time.”

That the Braves would be Milwaukee’s initial postseason foe didn’t become official until the Braves clinched the NL East on Thursday night while the Brewers were bussing to the team hotel after landing in Los Angeles.

“Over the last week, things have been narrowed down a little bit for us, but certainly having it set in stone allows you to have concrete conversations about what next week looks like,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said.

First there is this weekend, and the Brewers began Friday’s series opener in promising fashion with a 3-1 lead during a second inning in which Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw left the game with a return of discomfort in his left forearm. The Brewers extended that lead to 5-1 in the third.

But the Dodgers mounted a comeback against a pitcher, Lauer, who entered the night with a 6-0 record and a 1.89 ERA in eight career starts against Los Angeles. He was pitching another gem through the first four innings, having allowed only Turner’s solo home run to Dodger Stadium’s short porch in right field in the first inning.

In the fifth, it came undone. Lauer surrendered a one-out single that ticked off the glove of a leaping second baseman Kolten Wong, then an infield single to pinch-hitter Albert Pujols and a sharp single up the middle to Mookie Betts. Lauer got within one out of an escape when Corey Seager popped out on the infield, but Lauer then put a first-pitch changeup in a bad place to Turner and saw it lined for the 10th grand slam off a Brewers pitcher this season, and a 5-5 tie.

The Brewers have lost 10 of their last 16 games and yet sailed to the division title. Has this coast to the finish been a little weird?

“I wouldn’t say [these games are] weird. There’s a little bit of a different feel to them because you know you’re already in and everything,” Lauer said. “I mean, everybody wants to go out there and finish the season strong, keep their numbers where they’re at. We’re out there to compete and play because that’s what we like to do. Knowing that we’re already in doesn’t really change the fact that we want to win every game we can.”