Category: MLB

LOS ANGELES — Milwaukee Brewersowner Mark Attansio leaned against the visiting clubhouse wall Wednesday night, standing under a picture of clouds hovering over Dodger Stadium, and feeling as if he were on Cloud 9 himself, reached for his cell phone.

He looked at the time. He hesitated.

And decided to make the call.

He telephoned Bud Selig, who brought the Brewers from Seattle in 1970, and whose family owned the Brewers for 35 years.

Selig answered the call at 10:48 Central Time in his Milwaukee home.

“Commissioner, can you believe this?" Attanasio said.

Attanasio apologized for the late call, and said that he worried he woke him up, only for Selig to say, “How can I sleep after that?"

“What a remarkable story," Selig said. “What a remarkable story."

The Brewers, in the smallest market in baseball, have completely dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers in this National League Championship Series, and are on the verge of reaching the World Series for the first time in 44 years.

They won 6-2 in front of a subdued non-sellout crowd of 50,708, and lead the Dodgers, 3 games to 0, with the potential clinching game Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers are done, with only one team in baseball history ever recovering from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series, and these aren’t the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

The Brewers, who were swept by the Dodgers a year ago in the NLCS without leading a single inning, now are returning the favor in front of a stunned Los Angeles team that was trying to become the first National League club to win three consecutive World Series titles.

The Brewers are squashing that dream for all of the baseball world to see.

One more victory and the Brewers will join the 1923 New York Yankees as the only team to be swept by a team in the previous postseason and win a postseason series against the same team the next season. And no one has ever been swept and come back to sweep the same opponent the following season.

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

The Brewers not only remember that sweep, but used it the entire season to motivate them, knowing that anything less than a World Series appearance would be a failure. Brewers manager Pat Murphy vividly remembers the words he told his team after being swept in Los Angeles last year.

“Hey guys, remember this. It hurts, remember it,’’ Murphy said. “I think they remembered so far."

Oh, do they ever.

“It’s a real thing,’’ Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said. “I don’t think any player wants that feeling ever again.

Outfielder Sal Frelick has been to the postseason four consecutive years with the Brewers, but every single year October has brought heartbreak. They were swept in the wild-card series in 2023 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. They lost in 2024 to the Mets on Pete Alonso’s dramatic game-winning homer in the ninth inning of the deciding game. They finally won a series last year when they ousted the rival Cubs in five games, but then came the Dodgers sweep.

“It just leaves you with such a sour taste in your mouth,’ Frelick said.

But now here they are, knowing they are on the brink of history, joining that illustrious 1982 team that reached the World Series before losing in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.

For the first time in 44 years – yes, that’s Hank Aaron’s number – they can be pennant winners.

“I didn’t even know that number," Frelick said. “I’m not really thinking about stuff like that. We don’t even think about stuff like that. It’s just confined within these walls, keeping to ourselves."

So, no thoughts at all about the euphoria of reaching the World Series, and what it would mean to Milwaukee?

“I haven’t heard that in here," Frelick said. “No one’s even mentioned it"

Says Megill: “We’re not talking about that. We’ve got one more game to go. Then we can talk about it all you want"’

Murphy, in fact, will barely even concede that they’re in the driver’s seat, knowing the Dodgers’ glorious history.

“The Dodgers are an incredible team that's won back-to-back championships," Murphy said. “You think they're not good enough to come back and win a game against us or come back and play well? I mean, I know how good they are. Our guys know how good they are. Our guys know what we're up against."

Well, pardon everyone else in Milwaukee thinking about the World Series and knowing that this team could be remembered forever.

There are Brewer fans that can tell their grandkids about Jake Bauers, who two years ago planned to retire – only to change his mind when he learned his wife was pregnant and needed health insurance – to become the hero for a second consecutive game, this time hitting a go-ahead home run off two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell on the 11^th pitch of the at-bat. One batter later, left-handed hitting Garrett Mitchell homered too, becoming the first pair of left-handed hitters to hit back-to-back homers off a lefty in the LCS or World Series since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1928 World Series.

“We play for each other, it’s as simple as that, man," Bauers says. “When you have 26 guys that are bought into that and believe that and show up every day, completely selfless, playing for each other, it's a special thing to be a part of."

They will talk about a bullpen that has given up just three runs this entire postseason, with a closer, Trevor Megill, that was picked up from the scrap heap by the Minnesota Twins.

They will talk about a team that has only one player on the roster earning more than $10 million beating up a filthy rich team with 15 players making at least $10 million, including a $700 million man in Shohei Ohtani.

They’ll talk about a former boxer who became a college baseball coach, who was hired by one of his former players to be the Brewers bench coach, with Pat Murphy now on the precipice of being the Brewers’ version of Vince Lombardi.

“It’s almost too much to take, right?" Attanasio said. “What’s great about this group is that they’re young enough that they don’t get caught up in history, so they don’t get burned by history."

It’s hard for it sink in now, Attanasio says, but in 15, 20 years, they may all be reminiscing, talking about the good ol’ days, and repeating Selig’s refrain.

“Hopefully," Attanasio said, “I’ll be able to say just like Commissioner Selig: 'It’s a remarkable story.' "

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: One win from World Series, these Milwaukee Brewers are simply 'remarkable'

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are still woozy from the gut punch suffered in Game 3, but now face a sobering reality that their odds are long and the Milwaukee Brewers have several chances to deliver the knock out blow in the National League Championship Series.

“This one’s up there. The only one I can think of like that was maybe probably Game 5 against the Nationals in ‘19, but yeah, this one was tough,” said Kiké Hernández, whose 97 postseason games with the Dodgers are the most in franchise history. “It felt like once Will got that double, we were kind of gonna break out, and get back in the series. Now we dug an even bigger hole for ourselves.”

Will Smith’s sixth-inning drive looked like a potential home run but instead hit off the left field wall for a two-run double. Either way it was cathartic for Smith, who had just one hit in 26 at-bats in the postseason before that double gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

“It’s really hard to put into words, because you feel like you finally break through and Will with the big hit, you feel really good for him, because we all know he’s been struggling at the plate,” said shortstop Miguel Rojas, who had one of the Dodgers’ five hits in Game 3. “When that ball hit the wall, you feel like you could have gotten more, you know? That’s been the story of the series so far. Offensively we haven’t done our job, and it feel like we lost all the room for error we had earlier in the series. But we can’t do anything about it, we just have to come here tomorrow and win every pitch. That’s the mentality we have to have.”

After the double, the Dodgers still had runners on second and third with only one out. Hernández, pinch-hitting, struck out, as did Tommy Edman.

“For me, I took two strikes and swung at a ball,” Hernández said. “It’s just one of those points in time where it happens to go that way, and it just happens to be at the worst time of the season.

“We just weren’t able to put a couple more at-bats together in that sixth inning, and that was it. We didn’t add on, like they have in all three games, and that’s just the story of it.”

“I think with their pen, I felt it was important to try to get a lead, which we did with Will, and then get an opportunity to get some breathing room to tack on,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s certainly urgency where you want to keep their back end of the guys in the pen. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”

Blake Snell was cruising, with only 81 pitches through six innings having retired 14 batters in a row. Manager Dave Roberts’ plan was to leave Snell in to face the three left-handed batters to open the seventh inning before turning things over to right-hander Evan Phillips.

Snell walked Andrew Vaughn on seven pitches, then Jake Bauers battled for 11 pitches before hitting the two-run home run that turned the game around. Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell homered too. Snell was done, having retired none of the three lefties, now trailing 4-2.

Bauers is only two years younger than Snell, and was in the Tampa Bay Rays system from 2015-18. Bauers played 96 games in his first major league season for the Rays in 2018, the year his teammate Snell won his first Cy Young Award. Now in his seventh organization, Bauers had his best season this year with the Brewers and just turned 31 last week. He turned around Games 2 and 3 in this NLCS with long battles, including a 12-pitch walk by Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Monday in Milwaukee.

“I’ve seen all the ups and downs he’s been through, and it’s been a lot of downs. For him to go through this right now, he’s earned it. Hats off to him, what an at-bat,” Snell said of Bauers. “I threw everything I had, and then a fastball down the middle. If I could locate that better, who knows what would have happened? This is the best I’ve ever seen him play. It’s a good at-bat. Hats off to him, but the walk’s what really frustrated me, with Vaughn.”

Snell did not allow a home run this season, totaling 10 starts and 46 1/3 innings before giving up three home runs on Wednesday night.

“Three home runs in a game, and I didn’t give up one the whole year. To have three in a game is pretty frustrating but it’s something I’ve gotta learn from,” Snell said. “It’s part of their journey, too. It’s only gonna make me better along mine.”

Long and the short of it

The Dodgers have scored seven total runs in the three games of this NLCS, while the Brewers have scored seven runs in the seventh inning or later. After the three runs off Snell in the seventh inning of Game 3, Milwaukee tacked on single runs in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Dodgers have scored in five different innings in three games, and after four of those innings, the Brewers scored immediately in their next time up.

Milwaukee, tied for 28th in the majors with 154 home runs in the regular season, has five home runs in three games in the NLCS. The Dodgers, tied for seventh in the majors with 204 homers this year, haven’t yet hit one in this series.

Los Angeles has two hits in 16 at-bats (.125) with runners in scoring position in the NLCS, while Milwaukee has nine hits in 27 such at-bats (.333).

“We have an amazing pitching staff, and it’s really hard to pitch when you have no run support. That’s on us offensively,” Rojas said. “We haven’t done what we’re supposed to do, and keep building the momentum and getting more runs at the times we have the opportunities with runners on base. I don’t care how good you are, it’s really hard of having to be perfect with every pitch. So far it’s been the offense’s fault.”

“It’s a pretty simple answer,” said Max Muncy, who struck out with two on in the sixth inning. “We’re playing like shit, and they’re playing great. It’s as simple as that.”

LOS ANGELES — Even the most demoralized fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers must understand it’s likely going to get worse than this – and soon.

Not just the end of a quest to win a third straight World Series championship. Those hopes further dimmed when the Dodgers lost to Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2, in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series and fell behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.

The season could come to an end Thursday, Oct. 15, or soon after. And for those who think the Brewers are scary, let’s not forget about something else – the Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission.

rBoth are conducting parallel investigations of Mark Walter, controlling owner of the Dodgers, for potential financial improprieties at two insurance companies controlled by Walter and at Guggenheim Partners, where Walter is chief executive officer, Bloomberg has reported. The Department of Justice has not disputed the investigation and Walter's companies have said they're working with the government.

And the sales have begun.

In August, Walter agreed to sell his controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers for a valuation of $12.5 billion. In September, Walter and business partner Todd Boehly sold their share of approximately 13% in the Chelsea soccer team for more than $1 billion, according The Financial Times.

Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten adamantly denied the Dodgers are for sale. But Will Walter and his parters still be in positions to build teams with massive payrolls?

Other financial troubles loom

Let's say Walter and his companies are right. They did nothing wrong. The Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission gave them a clean bill of health and a note of apology for all of the aggravation.

Trouble still looms.

Major League Baseball is pressing for a hard salary cap that would rip away a massive advantage for Los Angeles. So hard that it's likely the sport will suffer from a strike or a lockout. Understandably, baseball fans must relish watching Los Angeles, the league's second biggest market, losing to Milwaukee.

Things figure to get tougher for the Dodgers if they're forced to give up one of their biggest advantages – economic power.

But the concerns extend further for Los Angeles.

After the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS, manager Dave Roberts lavished his team with praise.

"There's no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers," the three-time World Series-winning skipper boasted. "It's the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We're smarter, we're better, and we're tougher." 

Interjected outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, “And we're dinosaurs!"

Hernández is 33 and part of the undeniable reality. They might not be dinosaurs, but their age has begun to expose them.

That includes Ohtani, who at 32 is facing concerns about his own durability. Issues with his left knee forced him to stop pitching in early July and issues with his right bicep and neck left him on the injured list for 12 days in September.

He failed to recover power at the plate, although did show progress in Game 3. He ripped a single up the middle and also reached base after being hit by a pitch and drawing a walk while going 1-for-2. Scrutiny over Ohtani's slump is legitimate but masks larger problems.

What's wrong with the race car

The Dodgers are a race car with a broken clutch. They lose 2-1 in Game1 after failing to seize on Jacob Misioroski’s struggles. They took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth of Game 3, then immediately gave up three runs in the top of the seventh on back-to-back homers.

There have been no public appearances by Walter during the playoffs, which now look like one of the most disappointing Octobers since he and Guggenheim Partners bought the Dodgers in 2012. And about that purchase…

The Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast reported instances of alleged self-dealing when Walter and Guggenheim Partners bought the Dodgers in 2012 for $2.15 billion.

Walter and his companies have denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

On stagger the Dodgers, against daunting challenges beyond the Brewers as their remarkable reign is about to end.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers' nightmare may soon extend far beyond a Brewers sweep | Opinion

You don’t want to hear from me. You want to hear from Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager.

The Dodgers are one loss from an abrupt ending to their season, and from a National League Championship Series sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Let’s take you through the critical decisions Roberts made Wednesday night, the ones you second-guessed at home. They all pretty much backfired on him.

Situation: In the third inning, and again in the fifth inning, Tommy Edman comes to bat with Miguel Rojas on first base, none out, and the Dodgers trailing, 1-0. By the end of the fifth, the Dodgers had gone nine consecutive innings without scoring, and with a game plan of getting ahead before the Brewers’ vaunted bullpen could take over. Roberts does not ask Edman, one of the team’s most accomplished bunters, to sacrifice the runner into scoring position.

Roberts: “I just didn’t feel like giving up an out right there. … We could have bunted, but I felt I wanted to give Tommy an opportunity to drive in a run. … We haven’t been getting hits with runners in scoring position (3 for 32 in the postseason). To give up an out, to bank on getting a hit with runners in scoring position, I’d rather just try to maybe slug, hit a double.”

Result: Edman flied out both times. The Dodgers did not score in either inning.

Read more:Commentary: Plaschke: The Dodgers are done. After putting up a fight, the champs are out of gas

———

Situation: In the sixth inning, with the Dodgers still trailing, 1-0, the Brewers turn to Abner Uribe, who had faced 26 batters and walked two in the postseason. Uribe walks the first two batters, and Roberts deploys his primary left-handed bench threat, Max Muncy. That takes right-handed Andy Pages out of the game; the only Dodgers with more hits than Pages this October are Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts.

Roberts: “Abner is death on righties. You’re trying to guard against — you want to keep the inning going, and you don’t want a double play ball. Muncy’s not starting, and you want to fire that bullet in a leverage spot. First and second base, nobody out, it gives us the best chance to keep the inning going, in my opinion, and it gets Shohei up, and you have a chance to build an inning.”

Result: Muncy struck out.

———

Situation: After Muncy, Ohtani walks to load the bases, and Will Smith follows with a two-run double to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. With the right-handed Rojas due up, Roberts opts for the left-handed Josue De Paula as a pinch-hitter. Brewers manager Pat Murphy promptly replaces Uribe with left-hander DL Hall, who had been warming up. Roberts counters with the right-handed Kiké Hernández.

Roberts: “It’s a decision: Do I want Uribe facing Rojas? Then I chose De Paula, and they made the move. At that point in time, I felt we had the matchup advantage with Kiké. … For me, all the experience that Kiké’s had, I feel very confident with Kiké taking a bat with a guy on second and third, infield in.”

Result: Hernandez struck out, and so did Edman. The inning was over, and the Dodgers would not advance another man past first base the rest of the evening. The Dodgers could have used De Paula to bat against right-handed closer Trevor Megill in the ninth inning, but Roberts had already burned him.

Murphy said Uribe was coming out after Smith’s double no matter what — at that point, Uribe had thrown six strikes and 14 balls — so Roberts could have saved De Paula had he waited to see what Murphy would do.

———

Situation: Blake Snell has retired 14 consecutive batters entering the seventh inning, with the Dodgers leading, 2-1. It’s the first time the left-handed Snell has pitched beyond the sixth inning this season, with the right-handed Andrew Vaughn leading off and the left-handed Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell to follow. Evan Phillips is warming up in the Dodgers bullpen.

Read more:Dodgers Debate NLCS GAME 3: Dodgers stare down a sweep

Roberts: “His stuff was really good. I don’t think they were seeing him well. I was trying to get him three more hitters. We had Evan for that fourth hitter.”

Result: Vaughn walks, on six pitches. Bauers homers, on 11 pitches. The Brewers have the lead, 3-2.

Roberts: “Hasn’t given up a homer all year, but it just — it’s baseball. For me, I felt good with where Blake’s stuff was at. You’ve got to give Bauers credit.”

Situation: By that time, Snell is at 99 pitches, two shy of his season high, after the exhausting battles with Vaughn and Bauers. Roberts sticks to his plan: Snell for Mitchell, then Phillips for the right-handed Cooper Pratt.

Result: Mitchell homers, giving the Brewers a 4-2 lead. Hall and Megill combine for 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, and the Dodgers are one defeat from winter vacation.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers have two pitchers who have won multiple Cy Young Awards in Blake Snell and Tarik Skubal. Another starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is the reigning World Series most valuable player.

None of them will be on the mound Thursday when the season will be on the line. Instead, manager Dave Roberts will put the ball — and his team’s future — in the massive right hand of Tyler Glasnow, who will have no margin for error.

“It’s win or go home,” Skubal said. “Our backs are against the wall.”

That’s not how Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, saw things playing out when he traded three prospects to Detroit for Skubal in August. Or when he spent $182 million to sign Snell before last season. Or when he committed $325 million to sign Yamamoto the season before that.

The Milwaukee Brewers have bested all three in the National League Championship Series, reaching Snell for the only three home runs he’s given up this season in a 6-2 win in Game 3 on Wednesday. Now Glasnow is the only thing standing between the Dodgers and a long, cold winter.

And while that may not be the way the Dodgers wanted things to play out, they say they like their chances — for one night, at least.

“Everybody in the team is very confident in his ability and the stuff that’s coming out of his hand and doing his job,” Skubal said of Glasnow.

“I feel great about Glas,” utility man Kiké Hernández added. “He’s got some of the best stuff in the game. I feel like our pitchers have given us a chance every day to win a game, and we just haven’t hit. So we just got to hit.”

Read more:Plaschke: The Dodgers are done. After putting up a fight, the champs are out of gas

Glasnow started the season as the No. 3 starter, but before the Dodgers had gotten six weeks into their schedule, he was on the injured list because of lower back spasms. He spent most of the season there, pitching more innings in minor-league rehab starts than he did for the Dodgers between May and September.

He returned to make six starts down the stretch, striking out 49 in 34-1/3 innings to finish the season 5-2 with a 3.53 earned-run average in 13 starts, then held Atlanta to one hit over 4-2/3 innings in the deciding game of the division series.

“He’s fresh,” Roberts said of Glasnow. “He’s got a lot of arm talent. He’s got experience certainly in the postseason. We’ve got a lot of guys behind him” in the bullpen.

“I think he’s going to pitch well.”

The Dodgers’ season is depending on that. Glasnow, however, is just approaching it as another start.

“When I was younger maybe I’d feel it and get excited, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I can throw 105 if I try hard,’” he said. “Now it’s more about trying to settle in and go back to as close of a normal feeling as possible, not trying to chase it and be any different or any more or any less. Just try to stay with it and what I’ve done all week, my preparation, how I feel on the mound, and just keep it consistent.”

Read more:'How do we bounce back?' Dodgers collapse and fall into 3-0 NLCS hole vs. surging Brewers

Glasnow, 33, has pitched in 17 postseason games for Tampa Bay and the Dodgers, going 2-6 with a 4.27 ERA. Only Snell, among Dodgers starters, has more playoff appearances. But Glasnow hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2020 division series when he was pitching for the Rays.

If he can give the Dodgers a boost Thursday, however, if he can extend their season just one more day, it could give the team new life.

Only one team has come back from a three-game deficit to win a best-of-seven League Championship Series and that was the 2004 Boston Red Sox team Roberts played for — a team that also gave the ball to its fourth-best starting pitcher with its season on the line.

On the afternoon of Game 4, with the New York Yankees looking to beat Derek Lowe and sweep the Sox, Boston’s Kevin Millar stepped on the field at Fenway Park and issued a warning.

“Don’t let us win tonight,” he shouted. “If we win today, we’ve got Pedro [Martínez] coming back and then [Curt] Schilling will pitch Game 6 and anything can happen in a Game 7.”

The series played out exactly as Millar predicted. And if Glasnow can rescue the Dodgers, they would have their three high-paid aces — Skubal, Yamamoto and Snell — lined up for the next three elimination games.

But none of that matters if they lose Thursday.

“We just need to win tomorrow’s game,” Skubal said.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' season, and their quest for a World Series three-peat, is on the ropes. Their backbreaking 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night has them now staring down a 3-0 hole in the NLCS. History, for as much of it as the Dodgers have made the prior two seasons, isn't on their side this time around.

But they do have one guy in that clubhouse who knows what it's like to buck the trend.

"It's certainly possible," manager Dave Roberts told reporters about coming back from 3-0 down. "I've lived it."

Has there ever been a 3-0 comeback in MLB?

"Don't let us win tonight."

Kevin Millar stood on the field at Fenway Park that October night 22 years ago. Shouting that at anyone close enough to listen. The Boston Red Sox were down 3-0 in the ALCS to the archrival New York Yankees, their season on the brink. But yet there was Millar, confidently defiant of the reality that stood in front of them.

"If you let us win tonight, we’ve got Pedro (Martinez) in Game 5, (Curt) Schilling in Game 6," he continued. "And anything can happen in Game 7."

What followed was arguably the greatest comeback ever seen. Regardless of sport.

Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Millar drew a leadoff walk. Roberts pinch ran for him and immediately stole second. Then, Bill Mueller swatted an outside cutter from the infallible Mariano Rivera up the middle. Roberts darted off, arms pumping and chest up, sliding home and pumping his fist in the air as he got back on his feet after scoring the game-tying run.

The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

David Ortiz mashed a two-run, walk-off home run to stay alive. The Red Sox won Game 5 after that, then Game 6 and 7 to become the first − and so far only − team in MLB history to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

Can Dodgers come back from 3-0 down?

The Dodgers are in a much different situation. There is no 84-year curse hanging over their heads. They have the two World Series trophies from each of the last two years to fall back on. But the odds are just as great. Forty-one out of 42 teams facing a sweep have gone on to be eliminated, according to MLB's Sarah Langs.

The only other team to come close was the Houston Astros when they forced a Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Rays after falling down 3-0 in the 2020 bubble, but they still lost the winner-take-all contest 4-2.

But Roberts has been here before. He knows how dire the circumstances are. Rather than sit at the podium and wax poetic about his experience, though, he wants to keep it straightforward. The Dodgers have won four in a row nine times this season. They need to do it one more time. It starts with one, though.

He knows that better than anyone.

"We got to win tomorrow," he said. "That's our only focus."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Has there ever been a 3-0 comeback in MLB? Dodgers have to rally now to reach World Series

As the postseason wraps up without the Braves, it’s beginning to get into the season for awards and a flurry of offseason activity before the seemingly inevitable lockout.

Braves News

The Braves had a few finalists for Gold Glove awards and Players Choice awards.

MLBTR released their annual arbitration estimates, including for five Braves.

MLB News

The Brewers took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Dodgers in the NLCS, looking to knock out the Death Star and complicate the narrative around financial parity going into the CBA negotiations.

The Braves can’t seem to get rid of Don Mattingly, as he signed a 2 year deal to be the Phillies’ manager.

It’s been one of those nights for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their fans are headed straight for the exit gates.

Before the Dodgers suffered a 6-2 loss in the NLCS on Wednesday night, fans were already leaving the stadium before the ninth inning.

California Post senior sports reporter Edward Lewis captured multiple videos of fans exiting the stadium behind the bleachers in centerfield.

The news of the Dodgers leaving early came after they failed to fill out the stadium.

From the game’s opening pitch until the final out, Dodger Stadium was littered with empty seats, with the colors of blue and yellow chairs sprinkled throughout — even though the cost of tickets plummeted by 42% before the game began.

With Wednesday’s loss, the Dodgers are now facing a 3-0 deficit in the series and are a game away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Dodgers spent most of the game trailing the Brewers after Jackson Chourio made history on the game’s opening pitch.

Chourio saw a fastball come his way on the first pitch of the game and sent it over the right center-field fence for a solo home run.

Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell settled in from there, striking out nine batters through six innings.

Los Angeles got their first lead of the game in the sixth, when Will Smith, who spent most of his day welcoming his newborn child had a chance to make a difference for his team.

With the bases loaded and only one out, Smith hit a two-RBI double to score Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernandez.

Through most of the postseason, the Dodgers have struggled to bring runners home while in scoring position, and did just that after Smith’s rally starter as he and Shohei Ohtani were left stranded on third and second after Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman were struck out to end the inning.

Snell entered the seventh and gave up only two hits and one walk. The Brewers doubled that production and made it count.

Jake Bauers worked an 11-pitch at-bat against Snell in the inning and finished it with a two-run homer to end the game. Garrett Mitchell followed in the next at-bat by launching a changeup that was left hanging over the middle of the plate, 428 feet towards center field to make it a 4-2 game.

Milwaukee tacked on one more run in the eighth, sending the fans home. After they left, Joey Ortiz hit an RBI single to left to give the game its final score.

As the Dodgers are on the verge of being swept in the playoffs for the first time since 2023, they will host Milwaukee for Game 4 on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. PT.

Box Score

In Game Two of the NLCS on Monday, Jake Bauers had what was one of the best at-bats in the history of the franchise. Against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one of the best postseason pitchers of his generation, he worked a 12-pitch walk, which was followed by a two-run single that chased Yamamoto and sent the Brewers on their way.

That at-bat had a short reign as the best at-bat of Bauers’ career.

With one out in the seventh inning, against a cruising ace, just after the Dodgers had gotten to Abner Uribe, seized a late lead, and snagged all of the game’s momentum, Bauers one-upped himself. He battled Blake Snell for 11 pitches, the last of which ended up deep into the right field seats at Dodger Stadium. The Brewers never looked back.

Bauers wasn’t the only hero. Jackson Chourio homered on the game’s first pitch. Garrett Mitchell followed Bauers with a homer of his own. Robert Gasser was huge, with five scoreless innings. DL Hall had one of the biggest moments of any Brewer reliever in a postseason full of big moments for Brewer relievers. The defense looked good. But Bauers grabbed the headlines and the memories, and the Brewers now just need one win in four tries to get somewhere they haven’t been in 44 years: the World Series.

Milwaukee got things going right away. On the very first pitch of the game, Chourio jumped on a fastball down the middle and hit it over the wall in right field. It was the last thing the Dodgers needed, and a huge early jolt for the visiting team, as Milwaukee took an early 1-0 lead. With his third career postseason leadoff homer, Chourio moved into a tie for second on the all-time list for leadoff home runs in the playoffs. Here’s where I remind you he is 22.

HOW ABOUT THAT FOR A START https://t.co/YIpOTIw5gRpic.twitter.com/JD1Uz0ptJi

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

It’s a good thing they got to Snell when they did. After Chourio’s homer, Snell struck out the next three batters on just 11 pitches. In the second, he allowed a couple of baserunners—Mitchell walked and Cooper Pratt singled with one out—but he got out of that jam, and then completely locked in. After Pratt’s single, Snell retired the next 14in a row. He looked dominant in doing so.

In a twist that few would have seen coming, though, Gasser was ready to match Snell. He did it very differently—Gasser wasn’t working with strikeout stuff, and he got some help from his defense (as seen by Luis Lara’s play in the second inning, shown below)—but the Dodgers found themselves unable to square him up. He scattered a few hits and dealt with leadoff baserunners three times, but no runner advanced past second, and the Dodgers never felt like they got much of a threat going against the Brewer lefty. Gasser even stayed in to face the top of the order a third time; with a runner on first base and one out, Mookie Betts hit a hard line drive to center that was caught on a slide by Mitchell, and Freddie Freeman grounded out harmlessly to end the fifth, and Gasser’s evening.

LARA RUNS ONE DOWN pic.twitter.com/g5hmqgPoSh

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

It was a fantastic outing for the young Brewer lefty. Building off of his good showing in San Diego—when he allowed one run on three hits in four innings—Gasser went five scoreless, with three strikeouts, three hits allowed, one walk, and a hit batter.

After Snell threw a fourth straight perfect inning in the sixth, the Brewer bullpen took over, with Uribe on to face the middle of the Dodger lineup. Uribe, though, didn’t have it today. He walked Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker on just nine pitches, which injected major life into the Los Angeles crowd. Dave Roberts, sensing a moment, pulled Andy Pages to get Max Muncy an at-bat versus the right-handed Uribe, an aggressive but understandable move with Uribe needing to face another batter. Muncy got ahead of Uribe 2-1, but Uribe found it and came back to strike out Muncy.

With Hall warm in the bullpen, Pat Murphy made a surprising non-move: he let Uribe stay in to face Shohei Ohtani. Uribe still couldn’t find the zone; he walked Ohtani on five pitches, and the bases were loaded with one out for Will Smith. Smith, knowing that Uribe badly needed a first-pitch strike, sat on the fastball and got one right down the middle—he blasted it off the wall in left for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

Murphy has made all the right moves all postseason thus far, and it’s difficult to second guess him… but not pulling Uribe for Hall against Ohtani was a mistake that you could see coming. Uribe has worked a lot, and he didn’t have it tonight. After the Dodgers announced Josue De Paula as a pinch-hitter, Murphy removed Uribe for Hall, and Roberts countered by replacing De Paula with Kiké Hernández. With runners on second and third and one out, Hall struck out Hernández and Tommy Edman to keep the Dodgers at two—a huge pair of outs from the Brewer lefty.

Now, though, the Brewers needed to get something cooking against a starting pitcher who’d been absolutely mowing them down ever since the second pitch of the game. Snell was only up to 81 pitches, and he still had not allowed a baserunner since Pratt’s one-out single in the second inning. But he’d been sitting a while. Finally, leading off the seventh inning, the Brewers ended Snell’s run of 14 straight when Andrew Vaughn worked a seven-pitch walk, which got the bullpen moving for Los Angeles.

Christian Yelich replaced Vaughn as a pinch runner while Bauers came up to the plate. With Bauers’ long at-bat against Yamamoto fresh on the mound, and with Snell approaching 90 pitches, the Brewers hoped Bauers might work another long at-bat.

So he got ahead 2-1. On 2-2, he fouled off a couple pitches. He worked to 3-2. He fouled off another pitch. And then another. Then he hit one hard down the right-field line, one that looked like it might be going out off the bat… but it went foul too.

The next one did not go foul. Bauers got a middle-middle fastball on the eleventh pitch of the at-bat and he detonated it. He hit it 109.4 mph deep into the seats in right field, a two-run homer that flipped the scoreboard back in the Brewers’ favor. Two days after his 12-pitch at-bat that sparked Milwaukee’s rally against Yamamoto, an 11-pitch at-bat ended even better against Snell. A remarkable moment.

JAKE BAUERS HOMERS ON THE 11TH PITCH OF THE AB https://t.co/IHpzLO5UyYpic.twitter.com/TwovxHNOcV

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

The Brewers weren’t done with Snell. With Mitchell, a lefty, up, Roberts tried to get one more batter out of his starter. It was a bad idea. Mitchell got a 1-0 changeup that got way too much of the plate, and Mitchell blasted it even harder and further than Bauers had, a 111.5 mph, 428-foot, no-doubt shot that doubled Milwaukee’s lead.

WATCH OUT IN THE RIGHT FIELD BLEACHERS, THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS ARE HITTING BOMBS https://t.co/yqxUEze7UPpic.twitter.com/s72twVoGlY

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

Hall continued for the Brewers in the bottom of the seventh, now pitching with a 4-2 lead. He got some help from his defense: Joey Ortiz made a nice pick on a short hop to get Betts for the first out, and Chourio made a nice running catch for the second. Ortiz made another fine play on a weak ground ball, and Hall had taken his turn in the Brewer bullpen spotlight: five batters, five outs, two high-level-of-difficulty inherited runners stranded.

Roki Sasaki started the eighth for the Dodgers, but he was getting a lot of plate. Turang reached on a check-swing infield single with one out, and Contreras followed with a base hit up the middle, putting runners on the corners with one out for Yelich, who was getting his first at-bat of the game. Roberts moved to lefty Justin Wrobleski for Yelich, who faced a drawn-in infield. He just missed an extra-base hit on a chopper down the left-field line that was called foul on the first pitch he saw (upon further review… it really looked like it may have been fair), but it turned out the Brewers didn’t need Yelich to come through to get that insurance run: a ball in the dirt squirted away from Smith, both runners advanced, and the Brewers took a 5-2 lead. Wrobleski struck out Yelich and Bauers to end the inning, but Milwaukee now had a three-run lead that they only needed to protect for six more outs.

Hall, having a night, stayed on for the bottom of the eighth. Tucker put up a battle to lead off the inning, but he’s no Bauers, and he flew out to center on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Hall then had a favorable matchup against Muncy, who’d entered for Pages in the sixth, and Muncy popped out. With two outs, Ohtani ripped a single at 114 mph up the middle—by far the best contact of the series for him—and Hall was removed in favor of closer Trevor Megill, who was brought in to face Smith. Smith flew out harmlessly to Lara in right, and the Dodgers were down to three outs.

Pratt picked up his third hit of the game in the top of the ninth, and with two outs he moved to second with a stolen base. Ortiz, who looked a bit better at the plate today but had some tough BABIP luck, snuck one through this time—a grounder got past Muncy into left field, and Pratt scored. Classic Brewers baseball. Chourio bounced out to end the inning but Megill, a pitcher unused to getting more than three outs, now had a four-run lead to work with.

Joeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ❕ pic.twitter.com/b0ahJQYGOE

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

It turned out Megill did not need the extra cushion. He calmly retired the Dodgers in order, and the Brewers had a 6-2 victory and a 3-0 series lead.

What a remarkable, resilient team. After looking helpless against Snell for the bulk of the game, and after the Dodgers finally broke through against the Brewer bullpen in the sixth, Bauers, Mitchell, and the Brewers struck back with a sledgehammer. The Bauers homer is immediately one of the greatest moments in the history of the franchise. Mitchell’s was another exclamation point. But let’s not forget Hall’s work; his two strikeouts in the previous inning, in retrospect, could not have been bigger.

The Brewers, improbably, have a chance to close the series tomorrow night. That game is at 7pm. Tyler Glasnow will start for the Dodgers, and we’ll see what the Brewers do with their pitching staff; it’s likely we’ll see Dustin May, and I’d bet you some money that Aaron Ashby will feature big time given that he didn’t end up getting used tonight.

For now, I’ll just be thinking about this.

HOW DOES HE KEEP DOING THIS pic.twitter.com/SQetFZW8VQ

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

Blake Snell stood on the mound with his hand on his hip, waiting for Jake Bauers to cross the plate before punching in his pitch call for the next batter.

The Dodgers left-hander had just given up the lead on Bauers’ two-run homer in the seventh inning, spoiling what had been a stellar start Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. But Snell was ready to move on.

Two pitches later, he watched another ball fly over the fence, this time off Garrett Mitchell’s bat. And with it went the last of the Dodgers’ momentum in what would become a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

“It sucks,” Snell said of falling behind 3-0 in the series. “But it’s part of it. How do we bounce back? How do we fight? I think that’s the most important thing. It’s us coming together and finding a way to win.”

Read more:Plaschke: The Dodgers are done. After putting up a fight, the champs are out of gas

After setting their sights on a history-making three-peat, the Dodgers will have to win the next four games to advance to the World Series.

Only one team in MLB history has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series — the 2004 Red Sox in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, on their way to breaking the Curse of the Bambino.

“At the beginning of this year, we set out to do something historic,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said. “It looks like we’re going to have to make a little more history along the way if we want to accomplish that.

“That’s the task ahead of us. We still have the pitching staff to be able to do it. We just have to get some hits.”

For five innings, the only run on the board was the one the Brewers scored on the first pitch of the game.

Snell zipped a 97.6-mph fastball over the center of the plate, and Brewers leadoff hitter Jackson Chourio sent it into the first row of the stands in right-center.

For much of Snell’s start, however, that aggressive approach worked. He dotted the upper rail with his fastball, threw his curveball for both swings and misses and called strikes, and mixed in his changeup to right-handed batters.

Unlike Snell’s last postseason start, when he issued five walks and lasted just 3-2/3 innings against the Atlanta Braves, his efficiency got him through six-plus innings Wednesday, with just two walks.

And while Snell’s fastball averaged 97 mph in his last start — something he’d done only twice before in his career, regular season or postseason, and not since 2022, according to Statcast — he threw even harder on Wednesday: 97.3 mph.

After Chourio’s home run, Snell retired 18 of the next 20 batters, including 14 in a row, to get through six innings. His nine strikeouts were one shy of a postseason career high, which he recorded against the Brewers last year in Game 1 of the NLCS.

The game was still far from decided going into the bottom of the sixth, even though the Dodgers’ offense had been quiet.

With the way the Brewers’ bullpen pitched in the first two games, it seemed the Dodgers would have to score against the Brewers’ starters to have a chance to pull themselves out of the hole they’d dug.

They failed to do so in Game 3, logging just three hits off left-hander Robert Gasser.

Luckily for the Dodgers, pitching every game of the postseason seemed to finally have caught up to hard-throwing right-hander Abner Uribe in his seventh appearance.

Uribe took over for Gasser in the sixth inning and walked the first two batters.

Then Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had left-handed-hitting Max Muncy pinch-hit for Andy Pages. Muncy struck out, and the biggest moment of the game fell to two Dodgers who have had the worst postseason production on the team.

Roberts had moved Shohei Ohtani down to sixth in the batting order and put Will Smith behind him. Naturally, the game found them.

In a short-lived comeback story, they came through.

Ohtani drew a five-pitch walk without taking a swing. With the bases loaded, it was up to Smith, who had gone one for 25 in the postseason to that point.

He ambushed a first-pitch sinker and drove it into the left-field gap for a two-run double and the lead.

“It’s really hard to put it into words, because you feel like you finally break through,” veteran utility player Miguel Rojas said. “Will the big hit, you feel really good for him, because we all know he’s been struggling at the plate, getting the opportunities and now being able to come through.”

The rally halted there. Roberts burned rookie Josue De Paula as a pinch-hitter, swapping him out for Kiké Hernández when the Brewers brought in left-hander DL Hall. Hernández and Tommy Edman struck out to end the inning.

Read more:Shaikin: Here's how Dave Roberts explained all the Dodgers' moves that backfired

“That was the game right there,” Hernández said. “We need to put the ball in play; I didn’t. I struck out and gave Tommy a way harder job with two outs. Just have to be better tomorrow.”

Snell jogged back to the mound with a lead for the first time. He issued a leadoff walk to Andrew Vaughn. And then Bauers locked him into an 11-pitch battle — the second time in as many games that Bauers worked a Dodgers starter for double-digit pitches — that ended with a fastball over the middle of the plate.

“What an at-bat,” Snell said. “I threw everything I had. Fastball down the middle — if I can locate that better, who knows what would happen. It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play.”

Snell hadn’t given up a home run all season — not in his nine regular-season starts or his division series start. Three on Wednesday defined his defeat.

“To have three in a game is pretty frustrating,” Snell said. “It’s something I’ve got to learn from. It’s part of their journey too. It’s only going to make me better.”

The next inning, the Brewers added an insurance run with back-to-back singles against right-hander Roki Sasaki and a wild pitch from left-hander Justin Wrobleski. They tacked on another in the ninth with a pair of singles and a stolen base off Wrobleski.

Read more:'We just need to win tomorrow's game.' Dodgers remain optimistic despite 3-0 hole

With the flash of red taillights flickering outside of the stadium, a sign of fans already heading for the exits, the Dodgers went down in order to end the game.

“This is uncharted territory for us, especially the last two years,” Rojas said. “It’s kind of a tough one to kind of wrap your head around, especially with the talent that we have in this group and the way that we know we’re capable of playing, especially on the offensive part of the ball.

“With that being said, I feel like there’s nothing for us to kind of do or say. It’s just more of, come here tomorrow, we have another opportunity to win a baseball game and believe in a potential streak of four games in a row.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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.

The Dodgers embarked on this postseason in search of an historic third-consecutive World Serieschampionship.

In order to accomplish that goal now, they have an even more daunting challenge impeding their path.

A year after they swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, the shoe is suddenly, stunningly, unbelievably in danger of being put on the other foot.

With a 6-2 loss in Game 3 on Wednesday, the Dodgers are on the verge of not only elimination, but a humiliating sweep.

And unless they can become only the second team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series, the way they got there Wednesday will reverberate long into the winter –– serving as the potential death-knell in their modern-day dynasty.

In the sixth inning, the Dodgers had finally captured momentum in this previously one-sided matchup, taking a 2-1 lead on a bases-loaded two-run double from Will Smith against hard-throwing Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe.

It was the kind of moment the Dodgers had been waiting for all series: A big hit with runners on base. A hard-nosed rally against the Brewers’ dominant bullpen. A late-game lead that seemed to take their season off life support.

“You feel like you finally break through,” infielder Miguel Rojas said.

Minutes later, however, it would all disappear.

After six nearly flawless innings from Blake Snell, in which he had retired 18 of 20 batters after a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the game from Jackson Chourio, the two-time Cy Young Award winner returned to the mound in the seventh with Dodger Stadium still pulsing.

Then he issued a leadoff walk, and got locked in an epic battle with Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers.

Just as he had done to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a 12-pitch duel during Game 2, Bauers refused to be put away, working an 11-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off five two-strike offerings.

Finally, having exhausted all other options, Snell challenged him with a fastball in the heart of the plate.

Bauers was ready for it, clobbering a 412-foot shot halfway up the right-field pavilion.

Chavez Ravine went silent. The Brewers had regained a 3-2 lead.

“I threw everything I had,” Snell said. “[Then a] fastball down the middle. If I can locate that better, who knows what would happen.”

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What happened instead was a gut punch the Dodgers are unlikely to recover from.

Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell also took Snell deep on a no-doubt drive to right.

“I mean, three home runs in a game –– I didn’t give up one the whole year,” said Snell, who had indeed not only avoided any long ball in his 10 previous outings this season, but had only allowed three homers in a single game four times previously in his entire career.

“Pretty frustrating,” he added.

This time, it was on a hanging changeup, sending another shockwave through a dazed crowd of 50,708. And this time, there would be no way back for the Dodgers’ offense, which went missing again after its sixth-inning outburst.

“This one sucks,” infielder Kiké Hernández said. “At the end of the day, we haven’t hit. It’s tough to win a series the way that we’ve been hitting.”

Added Rojas, in agreement: “It’s really hard to pitch when you have no run support. That’s on us. Offensively, we haven’t done what we’re supposed to do to keep building momentum and getting more runs in the times we have opportunities with runners on base.”

Indeed, in some ways, the Dodgers’ most costly sequence might have come at the end of the sixth, when they failed to tack on more after Smith’s two-run drive.

Shohei Ohtani, having drawn the third walk of the inning against Uribe, seemed to get a late read on Smith’s ball and only made it from first to third on the play. Then, after the Brewers turned to left-hander DL Hall, Hernández and Tommy Edman both struck out to end the inning, leaving Ohtani and Smith stranded in scoring position.

“That was the game right there,” Hernández said of his at-bat. “We need to put the ball in play. I didn’t. I struck out and gave Tommy a way harder job with two outs.”

Really, it epitomized the Dodgers’ struggles over this entire series, in which they’ve managed just 15 total hits against the Brewers’ pitching staff and gone a woeful 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

“It’s a pretty simple answer,” third baseman Max Muncy said of the Dodgers’ team-wide slump. “We’re playing like s–t. They’re playing great. It’s as simple as that. No need to overcomplicate it.”

Over the final three frames, a two-out eighth-inning single from Ohtani –– who, base-running mistake aside, took a step forward by reaching base three times in the wake of speculation he could be benched following Game 2 –– would be the Dodgers’ only offense.

The Brewers, meanwhile, tacked on insurance runs in the eighth and ninth en route to putting the Dodgers’ season on the brink.

“We still have the pitching staff to be able to [come back in this series],” Muncy said, with Tyler Glasnow set to start Game 4 on Thursday, and co-aces Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up behind him. “We just have to get some hits … We’ve just got to show up ready to play.”

At some point, of course, the Dodgers’ dynasty was bound to end.

After so many close calls the last two years, their October luck was eventually due to run out.

But not even in their worst nightmares could they have imagined a scenario like this, a loss like this, a potential sweep like this.

“It’s really hard to put it into words,” Rojas said.

And now, they either have to make history, or become history.

Even for the two-time defending champions, it feels like a too tall of a task.

LOS ANGELES — The Milwaukee Brewers refuse to say it, and the Los Angeles Dodgers refuse to acknowledge it.

But it’s over.

The Brewers are going to win the National League pennant and reach their first World Series in 44 years.

And the Dodgers’ World Series title run comes to an end.

It will become official as soon as Game 4 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

Maybe Friday in Game 5. At the worst, when they get back to Milwaukee.

But this National League Championship Series is over.

The Brewers staged another late comeback, and came away with a 6-2 victory over the Dodgers to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.

And only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have ever overcome a 3-0 deficit to win the best-of-seven series.

History won’t be repeating itself, not even with the Dodgers' manager being the one who helped spark that comeback with a historic stolen base.

So, does Dave Roberts dare show the video clip of him stealing second base in the ninth inning of that famed Game 4 against the Yankees and closer Mariano Rivera, leading to four consecutive victories?

“Absolutely not, no," Roberts said, laughing before the game. “Then I'll lose them. I don't know if some of those guys even know I played. No, absolutely not.

“When times get tough, I just kind of go the other way and get more lax and have fun with the guys, just want to slow down."

Well, things are more than tough.

Call it impossible.

The Brewers won a major-league leading 103 games during the regular season, and they’re not about to lose four in a row now.

Next stop, World Series – which they have never won in their 58-year history.

The Brewers are careful not to pop off, let alone pop any champagne bottles, but no matter how carefully they choose their words, they are on the brink of Brewers manager Pat Murphy reading another fictional letter to his team from the late Bob Uecker in their celebration.

“The way I look at it, you're climbing a mountain, and you're getting really close to the top,’’ Murphy said, “and when you are, usually that path narrows a little bit. You know what I mean? It's not as wide. When you start the mountain, it seems like this wide [spreading his arms].

“I think as you get closer, you've just got to keep your footing, keep your head down, and you can't look too far ahead. When you look up for the prize, “Oh, where's the top,’ you might step in a crack or a pothole. You've got to keep your head down and go forward.

“If you don't, adversity is coming."

Well, the only adversity coming to the Brewers will be trying to keep sharp until the World Series begins in eight days in Milwaukee against the winner of the Tampa Bay Rays-Cleveland Guardians series.

This was no fluke.

The Brewers beat the Dodgers in every phase of the game.

The Dodgers’ big advantage entering the series was their starting rotation and their power.

Well, the Brewers’ rotation has out-pitched the Dodgers. Their bullpen has out-pitched the Dodgers, giving up just two runs all series. They hit better in the clutch, with the Dodgers hitting .094 with runners in scoring position.

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The Brewers, who hit the second-fewest homers in the major leagues this season, even out-homered the Dodgers, 5-0.

You name it, and the Brewers were better.

The Brewers came into the series confident, and at the moment there’s no doubt in their mind they are the best team in the National League.

“The belief had to be there at some point," Murphy said. “They didn't just wake up yesterday morning or this morning and say we could do this thing. I think their belief has been there. [Christian] Yelich has spoken openly about it. I think the guys followed the lead. [William] Contreras has spoken openly about it. This is what we're doing.

“But you've got to keep your head down and take each step."

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It’s certainly a far cry from a year ago when the Brewers were swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS, not leading a single inning, leaving Los Angeles with a long, quiet flight home.

“I said, 'Hey guys, remember this. It hurts, remember it,'" Murphy said. “I think they remembered so far. It seems like they remembered."

Oh, have they ever, knocking off the San Diego Padres in four games in the Division Series, and now walloping the Dodgers.

The Brewers took command of this game from the first pitch when Jackson Chourio hit a home run over the left-center-field fence off two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, the first homer he had given up in his 11 starts this season. It was as if the blast performed a jet-stream of cold water on his face. He proceeded to retire 18 of the next 20 batters, including  he faced through the first four innings, striking out eight batters. He shut down the last eight batters in order, including 14 in a row.

The lead held until catcher Will Smith, who was in a 1-for-25 skid, hit a two-run double off the center-field wall in the sixth inning for a 2-1 lead.

Snell, now pitching with a lead for the first time, melted down.

He walked Andrew Vaughn to lead off the seventh, and then in another epic at-bat by Jake Bauers, gave up a towering home run on the 11^th pitch. Garrett Mitchell followed with another homer. Snell, who had not thrown a changeup to a left-handed hitter all night, watched two clear the fence as Roberts yanked him from the game as boos filled the air.

It was 4-2 Brewers, and with their vaunted bullpen, it was all over, with the non-sellout crowd of 50,708 streaming for the exits.

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

“Yeah, last year ended kind of terribly,’ Vaughn said. “Getting swept in the playoffs wasn't a good feeling. That definitely wasn't a fun plane ride home.

“I think it fueled everybody that experienced that last year."

Now, they will leave Los Angeles with the feeling of euphoria.

They should be departing with the National League pennant.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers have Dodgers' Superteam in hopeless NLCS pit, facing its own mortality

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Somebody might want to tell Miguel Rojas that it’s not a good idea to get ahead of yourself when it comes to winning championships. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers infielder and 2025 World Series hero arrived for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night sporting custom red Nike Air Jordan cleats featuring the Dodgers’ 2024 and 2025 World Series trophies alongside a rather presumptuous message:

“2026 loading…”

Miguel Rojas’ cleats say a 3-peat is loading pic.twitter.com/XEFcf6GQ6Q

— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) October 15, 2026

Unfortunately for Rojas, the Milwaukee Brewers apparently didn’t get the memo that a third straight title was a foregone conclusion. 

Photographers captured the flashy footwear at Dodger Stadium, where Rojas started at third base against left-hander Robert Gasser. But by night’s end, those championship cleats looked more like a premature victory lap.

Rojas reached base twice with a single and a walk before manager Dave Roberts inexplicably removed him during a pivotal sixth-inning rally.

With Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe reeling after Will Smith’s two-run, bases-loaded double, Roberts pinch-hit Josue DePaula for Rojas, only to replace DePaula with Kiké Hernández after Brewers manager Pat Murphy countered with a left-hander.

Roberts also lifted Andy Pages for Max Muncy two batters earlier. 

Both pinch-hitters struck out, leaving two runners stranded in scoring position.

One inning later, Blake Snell surrendered back-to-back home runs as Milwaukee seized a 4-2 lead.

JAKE BAUERS PUTS THE BREWERS BACK IN FRONT! pic.twitter.com/KK8xCFd7j1

— MLB (@MLB) October 15, 2026

Suddenly, Rojas’ cleats weren’t looking so clever.

The Brewers went on to win the game 6-2 and now lead the NLCS 3-0, leaving Los Angeles one loss away from watching its historic three-peat aspirations disappear.

Ironically, only one team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven MLB postseason series: the 2004 Boston Red Sox, featuring Roberts himself.

Maybe Rojas didn’t jinx the Dodgers.

But if Los Angeles completes this collapse, those “2026 loading” cleats might become an unfortunate fashion statement that didn’t work out on the field.

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