Heroes, zeros and other observations from the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series:
Zero: Blake Snell –– in the seventh inning
There was something different about Blake Snell this week.
All around the ballpark, the usually jovial left-hander wore a stoic expression. He walked to and from outfield catch play every day with a look of determination on his face.
His Dodgers teammates noticed it. So did his manager.
“Much more quiet, much more kind of staying to himself,” Dave Roberts said of his star left-hander, coming off a disappointing NL Division Series start in which he failed to complete four innings. “I think he’s been really anxious to get another opportunity … When you guys see him take the mound today, you’re going to see another level of intensity.”
For six innings, that was true, with Snell overcoming a leadoff home run from Jackson Chourio on the first pitch of the night by retiring 18 of his next 20 (nine via strikeout) and 14 in a row at one point.
It gave the Dodgers’ slumping offense time to finally break through, when Will Smith hit a go-ahead two-run double with the bases loaded in the sixth.
But then, in a sequence that will reverberate long into the winter, Snell returned for the seventh and suffered an historic postseason meltdown.
He walked leadoff batter Andrew Vaughn. He then got Jake Bauers in a two-strike count but repeatedly failed to put him away.
Five times, Bauers fouled off a two-strike offering. Just as he did to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, he extended an at-bat into double-digit pitches.
“What an at-bat,” Snell conceded. “I threw everything I had.”
Finally, on pitch No. 11, Snell made a mistake, leaving a fastball down the middle.
Bauers was all over it, clobbering a no-doubt two-run homer halfway up the right-field pavilion.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Garrett Mitchell doubled the pain two pitches later, going back-to-back on another long ball to right.
That ended Snell’s night, and marked only the fifth time in his career he had allowed three home runs in a game. Even more shockingly: He hadn’t given up a big fly in any of his 10 previous outings this season.
A stunning conclusion to what had been shaping up to be a dominant start –– and perhaps the death blow to the Dodgers’ World Series three-peat ambitions this year.
Hero: DL Hall
For as shocking as Snell’s seventh-inning sequence was, what happened at the end of the sixth for the Dodgers might have been just as costly.
After doing next to nothing against the Brewers’ bullpen in the first two games of this series, the Dodgers had finally broken through against Abner Uribe, loading the bases on three walks –– in a sign of potential fatigue from the hard-throwing right-hander, who has pitched every game of this postseason for Milwaukee –– before Smith came up and snapped his 1-for-25 playoff drought with a two-run double off the wall in left.
However, Shohei Ohtani seemed to get a bad read on that drive, failing to score from first in what would prove to be a consequential mistake.
Then, the Brewers turned to Hall, tasking the second-best lefty in their bullpen to get through the rest of the inning unscathed.
On just 10 pitches, he did, recording back-to-back strikeouts of Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman to retire the side and keep the Brewers’ deficit at just one run.
A half-inning later, Hall’s escape would prove paramount.
He wasn’t done either, collecting five more outs in seventh and eighth to earn a pivotal winning decision.
Unsung hero: Shohei Ohtani
His base-running mistake aside, Ohtani validated the Dodgers’ decision to keep him in their lineup after speculation he could be benched following Game 2.
After being dropped to the No. 6 spot in the batting order, he went 1-for-2 with his sixth-inning walk and a hit-by-pitch in the fourth. He also laced a 113.5 mph single in the eighth, and even looked better on the one out he recorded back in his first at-bat, when he lined out sharply to left.
It was a step in the right direction for the injury-hampered slugger, who entered Wednesday batting just 3-for-20 in the playoffs.
But if the Dodgers are to save their season –– now facing a 3-0 deficit that only one team in MLB history has ever overcome in a seven-game series –– they will almost certainly need more from the four-time MVP, who still doesn’t have an extra-base hit or RBI this October.
Stat of the game: Eight
That’s how many runners the Dodgers left stranded on base Wednesday, continuing a playoff-long trend of missed chances and wasted opportunities.
Even with Smith’s double, they finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, falling to 3-for-32 in such situations this postseason.
Quote of the night
Max Muncy didn’t mince words when asked why the Dodgers’ offense –– now sporting a .165 batting average in this series –– has not been able to have more success against the Brewers’ admittedly stout pitching staff.
“It’s a pretty simple answer,” he said. “We’re playing like shit. They’re playing great. It’s as simple as that. No need to overcomplicate it.”
Unless the Dodgers can reel off four straight wins now, that will be the story of how their dynasty ended.
