LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers finally got the big hit they needed, but it didn’t matter. Jake Bauers had another epically long at-bat, this time culminating in a two-run home run to help the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-2 win in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Milwaukee leads the series three games to none, a nearly full reversal of last year’s NLCS between these same two franchises.
Blake Snell had a fantastic first six innings, with nine strikeouts in an efficient 81 pitches, and retired 14 in a row through the sixth. He allowed just one run to that point, on a first-pitch home run by Jackson Chourio to open the game, the first long ball allowed by Snell in 11 starts this season.
It would not be his last.
The Dodgers grabbed a lead in the sixth inning, their latest lead of the series, and Snell was back out for the seventh. He walked Andrew Vaughn to open the frame, then up came Bauers, whose 12-pitch walk was the beginning of the end for Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 in Milwaukee. This time, Bauers only fouled off five pitches instead of six, one of them a long drive down the right field line but well foul.
Then, Bauers straightened one out on pitch number 11, a ball hit deep into the right field pavilion reminiscent of Matt Stairs 18 years earlier.
“I think he retired 13 or 14 in a row and his stuff was really good. I don’t think they were seeing him well,” manager Dave Roberts said, explaining his plan for the seventh inning. “I was trying to get him three more hitters. We had Evan [Phillips] for that fourth hitter.”
With the left-handed Garrett Mitchell batting, Snell remained in the game, but only for two more pitches as Mitchell homered as well, giving Milwaukee a two-run advantage.
That’s really been the difference in the series, with the Brewers able to take advantage and add on when needed, while the Dodgers have been scratching and clawing with very little to show for it.
Starter Robert Gasser allowed only a walk and three hits in his five scoreless innings, the latest in a growing number of pitchers to give the Dodgers fits this postseason. Two of those hits came in the third inning, and a praying mantis provided LA’s best scoring chance against the left-hander, annoying Chourio in left field before he was able to recover and catch a fly ball off the bat of Freddie Freeman.
Abner Uribe struck out four in 2 1/3 innings in pitching each of the first two games of the NLCS, and he was the first Milwaukee reliever out of the bullpen in Game 3, getting the sixth inning. This time, the right-hander was vulnerable, walking a career-high-tying three batters among his first four faced.
Up came Will Smith, with just one single in his first 26 at-bats this postseason with nine strikeouts. A wild Uribe was left in to face Smith, who’s wife Cara posted on Instagram earlier Wednesday about the birth of daughter Carter, the couple’s third child.
Smith doubled off the wall, scoring two to give the Dodgers a lead. Smith’s double was the big hit they’d been missing, and the Dodgers’ first extra-base hit with runners in scoring position this season, and just their third hit overall in those situations, in 32 at-bats.
But with only one out in the inning and runners on second and third base, they remained stranded as Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman struck out. The Dodgers were not able to tack on, and the inning used up nearly all of the Dodgers’ bench. Max Muncy pinch-hit for Andy Pages with two on and nobody out, but struck out against Uribe.
“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,” Roberts explained after the game. “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.”
Josue De Paula was first called to pinch-hit after the Smith double, but when Pat Murphy removed the right-handed Uribe in favor of the left-handed DL Hall, Roberts burned the left-handed De Paula, choosing the right-handed Hernández instead.
“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.”
That one hit did not lead to two.
Hall, who got the final two outs of the sixth inning when the Brewers still trailed, remained in the game after they regained the lead. The left-hander needed only six pitches to retired the Dodgers in order in the seventh, a shutdown inning that must seem foreign to the Dodgers.
Los Angeles scored in only four different innings in Games 2 and 3, and after each one the Brewers scored in the very next frame. Milwaukee added insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings on Wednesday, because they’ve been the better team this season and in this series.
That’s one of many reasons the Brewers now have up to four chances to get the one win they need to advance to their 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.”
That’s looking less and less likely now.
NLCS Game 3 particulars
Home runs: Jackson Chourio (2), Jake Bauers (1), Garrett Mitchell (1)
WP — DL Hall (3-0): 1 2/3 IP, 2 strikeouts
LP — Blake Snell (0-1): 6+ IP, 4 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts
Sv — Trevor Megill (4): 1 1/3 IP, 2 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers turn to Tyler Glasnow trying to keep their season alive on Thursday (moved up one hour earlier, to 5:08 p.m., FS1). Milwaukee has not yet named its Game 4 starting pitcher, but I’m not sure that matters all too much.
