On July 18, 2018, Machado was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Yusniel Diaz, Dean Kremer, Rylan Bannon, Breyvic Valera and Zach Pop.

Throughout the National League Championship Series, Machado caught the ire of Brewer fans for his controversial play.

Yasmani Grandal of the Dodgers became the first catcher in post-season history to have two errors and two passed balls in the same game.

The Brewers added on to their lead when Jesús Aguilar hit a homer off of Julio Urías in the seventh inning.

The Dodgers loaded the bases in the eighth inning against Joakim Soria and managed to score three runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Machado and Matt Kemp off of Jeremy Jeffress to narrow the gap to 6–4.

Chris Taylor hit an RBI triple in the ninth off Corey Knebel, who managed to retire Justin Turner to save the 6–5 win for the Brewers.

The game remained scoreless into the fifth inning, when Orlando Arcia hit a homer to put the Brewers on the board.

An RBI single by Cody Bellinger in the seventh inning off Corbin Burnes gave the Dodgers their first run of the game.

The Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth when Justin Turner hit a two-run home run off of Jeffress.

This was Turner's second career go-ahead home run in the seventh inning or later in the postseason, joining Kirk Gibson as the only other Dodger to accomplish this feat multiple times.

The Brewers scored in the top of the first inning, when Christian Yelich walked and Ryan Braun drove him in with a double.

The Brewers added a second run in the sixth inning when Travis Shaw tripled and then scored on a wild pitch by Buehler.

The Dodgers loaded the bases in the ninth against Jeremy Jeffress, but Brian Dozier struck out looking to end the game.

Domingo Santana tied the game up, driving Orlando Arcia in with a pinch-hit double in the fifth inning.

In the 10th inning, benches briefly emptied after Manny Machado intentionally kicked Milwaukee first baseman Jesús Aguilar on a ground out, .

Junior Guerra picked up the loss in his fourth inning of relief for Milwaukee, while Julio Urías, who had pitched the top of the 13th for Los Angeles, got the win.

[22] With the Dodgers in danger of going down 3–2, this game featured the second starts of the series for Clayton Kershaw and for the Brewers Wade Miley, the latter of whom was pitching on short rest.

He also walked twice as a batter, becoming just the third pitcher in the last 20 years to do so in a post-season game (Jon Lester in the 2016 NLCS and Derek Lowe in the 2008 NLDS).

[24] Pinch hitter Curtis Granderson doubled in a run off Ryan Madson in the ninth inning to cut the score to 5–2.

[27] David Freese, batting leadoff for the first time in the series, opened the game with a home run off of Miley to give the Dodgers the lead.

[28] For his role in the benches clearing confrontation in Game 4, Manny Machado was booed by Milwaukee fans for the entirety of all his at-bats throughout the remainder of the series.

With this NLCS the Dodgers tied for the fourth most game sevens in history with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Red Sox.

The Dodgers would go on to win 5–1 as Clayton Kershaw retired Shaw, Aguilar and Moustakas to claim their second straight National League title, 40 years after they accomplished the feat in 1977 and 1978.