Brewers Beat Dodgers 6-2 in NLCS Game 3, Take 3-0 Series Lead

The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the World Series. They beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, Oct. 14, at Dodger Stadium. They lead the series 3-0.

The Dodgers have won the last two World Series. They now face an elimination game today, Thursday, Oct. 15.

Chourio starts it, Bauers and Mitchell finish it

Jackson Chourio, 22, hit the first pitch of the game, a fastball from Blake Snell, for a leadoff home run. Then not much happened for a while.

Snell settled in and at one point retired 14 straight batters. Gasser, the Brewers' No. 3 starter, matched him with five scoreless innings. He allowed three hits and one walk, struck out three, and was pulled at 72 pitches as he faced the Dodgers lineup a third time.

That decision nearly backfired. Abner Uribe, who had not allowed an earned run in his previous 11 appearances, walked the bases loaded in the sixth. Will Smith then doubled with one out, scoring two and putting Los Angeles up 2-1. Smith had started the postseason 1-for-25.

DL Hall struck out the next two batters and stranded two runners.

Milwaukee answered in the seventh. Snell walked Andrew Vaughn to open the inning. Jake Bauers then won an 11-pitch at-bat with a two-run homer for a 3-2 lead. Garrett Mitchell homered on the next pitch, and it was 4-2.

Snell had thrown 99 pitches when Bauers came up and 101 by the time Mitchell connected. He finished with nine strikeouts in six innings, four runs allowed and two walks. Manager Dave Roberts left him in to face Mitchell.

Milwaukee added a run in the eighth when Brice Turang, who had singled, scored on a wild pitch from Justin Wrobleski. Joey Ortiz added an RBI single off Wrobleski in the ninth. Closer Trevor Megill recorded a four-out save.

The Dodgers' offense

Shohei Ohtani reached base three times, batting sixth. He came in hitting .150 for the postseason with no home runs and no RBIs, according to CBS Los Angeles.

Max Muncy did not dress it up. "It's a pretty simple answer," he said after the game. "We're playing like s--t, and they're playing great."

The Brewers see a difference from last year, when the Dodgers swept them in the NLCS. Bauers said last year's team "flew to LA knowing we were heading to a funeral," while this group arrived expecting to win.

The math Los Angeles is up against

Forty-two teams have fallen behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven MLB postseason series. Only one has come back to win it: the 2004 Boston Red Sox, in the ALCS against the New York Yankees.

Roberts was a member of that Red Sox team. He is using that history as his argument.

"We've won four in a row a number of times this year," Roberts said. "We've got to win tomorrow. That's our only focus." He also said the team needs "to find a way to build some momentum."

This is only the second time the Dodgers have trailed 3-0 in a postseason series. The first was the 1966 World Series, when the Baltimore Orioles swept them.

The Brewers have not reached a World Series since 1982. They are the best team in baseball by record, and Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy has leaned on a deep, high-leverage bullpen all series. Uribe's rough sixth was the exception on Wednesday.

What to watch in Game 4

Game 4 is scheduled for 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) today at Dodger Stadium. Tyler Glasnow is set to start for Los Angeles.

Milwaukee has not announced its starter. The likely options are Dustin May or a bullpen game.

A win by the Brewers sends them to the World Series. A Dodgers win keeps the series alive at 3-1 and forces a Game 5.