LOS ANGELES - The Dodgers got the breakthrough swing they’d been chasing, but Milwaukee had already packed too much punch. Jake Bauers turned in yet another marathon at-bat, then ended it with a two-run homer as the Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Milwaukee now owns a 3-0 series lead, flipping the script in a big way from last year’s NLCS between these same teams.
Blake Snell was sharp for most of the night. He struck out nine over six efficient innings, needed just 81 pitches to get through those frames, and set down 14 straight hitters through the sixth. The only damage against him through that point came on Jackson Chourio’s first-pitch home run to lead off the game, which was also the first long ball Snell had surrendered in 11 starts this season.
But the Brewers weren’t done.
The Dodgers finally pushed in front in the sixth inning for their latest lead of the series, and Snell returned for the seventh. He opened the inning by walking Andrew Vaughn, then Bauers stepped in and started grinding again. Bauers had already worn down Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 with a 12-pitch walk, and this time he pushed Snell deep into the count as well, fouling off five pitches - including one drive down the right-field line that hooked just foul.
On pitch No. 11, Bauers got one he could drive, sending it deep into the right-field pavilion in a blast that drew comparisons to Matt Stairs 18 years earlier.
Garrett Mitchell followed with the left-handed Snell still in the game, and that lasted only two more pitches before Mitchell also went deep. In a matter of moments, Milwaukee had ripped the game open and grabbed a two-run lead.
That has been the story of this series: the Brewers keep cashing in, keep adding on, and keep making the Dodgers pay for every missed chance.
Robert Gasser gave Milwaukee a strong start of his own, allowing only a walk and three hits over five scoreless innings. Two of those hits came in the third, when Los Angeles’ best scoring look against him involved a praying mantis bothering Chourio in left field before he recovered to catch Freddie Freeman’s fly ball.
The Dodgers finally found some life against the bullpen in the sixth. Abner Uribe, who had struck out four over 2 1/3 innings while pitching in each of the first two NLCS games, came on and suddenly lost the zone. He walked a career-high-tying three of his first four batters.
That opened the door for Will Smith, who entered with just one single in his first 26 postseason at-bats and nine strikeouts. Uribe stayed on to face him, and Smith made the most of it, ripping a double off the wall to score two runs and give Los Angeles the lead.
It was the Dodgers’ first extra-base hit with runners in scoring position this season, and only their third hit overall in those situations in 32 at-bats.
Still, the inning never fully cracked open. With one out and runners on second and third, Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman both struck out, leaving Los Angeles stuck on two runs. Max Muncy also came up in a pinch-hit spot earlier in the inning for Andy Pages with two on and nobody out, but he struck out against Uribe.
Dave Roberts also burned through his bench in the sequence, with Josue De Paula initially called on to pinch-hit after Smith’s double before Pat Murphy turned to the left-handed DL Hall and Roberts answered by going with the right-handed Hernández instead.
After the inning, the Dodgers had little left to show for their best shot.
“It’s not like we’re playing like really bad. I think we’re just not getting the hits that we need to really explode as an offense,” shortstop Mookie Betts said earlier Wednesday. “One hit can kind of lead to two and then kind of keep us going.”
The problem for Los Angeles was that one hit never snowballed. Hall, who recorded the final two outs of the sixth while the Brewers still trailed, stayed in and quickly shut down the Dodgers in the seventh with a six-pitch inning. That kind of clean frame has been hard to find for Los Angeles.
The Dodgers scored in only four different innings across Games 2 and 3, and after each one, Milwaukee answered in the next frame. The Brewers added insurance runs in the eighth and ninth on Wednesday, keeping their grip on the series tight.
Now Milwaukee gets four chances to close out the one win it still needs to reach its first World Series since 1982.
“Right now we’ve got a tall task,” Betts said before Game 3, “But it’s something we can achieve.”
The Dodgers will try to stay alive Thursday with Tyler Glasnow on the mound, in a game moved up an hour to 5:08 p.m. on FS1. Milwaukee has not announced its Game 4 starter, though at this point that may not be the biggest concern in the series.
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