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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.

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…”

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.

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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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.

For as good as Blake Snell was in Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday night, it was the long ball that got the best of him.

Snell, who came into the postseason without giving up a home run during the regular season, gave up three to the Brewers.

Snell spent most of the night playing from behind, as he put himself in a 1-run deficit after Jackson Chourio blasted a solo shot over the right center field wall, from a 97.6 mph fastball.

Snell went ahead and settled in afterward striking out nine batters and giving up two hits before disaster struck in the seventh.

After his catcher Will Smith got him his first lead of the night in the sixth inning, Snell immediately gave it back up.

When Snell took the mound in the seventh, he opened the inning by giving up a walk to Andrew Vaughn.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy quickly removed him from the game and put in Christian Yelich as a pinch runner.

Murphy’s move wouldn’t end up being a factor as Jake Bauers had other plans.

Bowers and Snell had a long 11-pitch at-bat, where he showed plenty of muscle, including on the 10th pitch when he hooked a ball foul, resulting in it landing just outside of a home run.

On the 11th pitch, he made up for the previous swing by launching a 97.8 mph four-seam fastball over the right field fence for a 412-foot home run.

In the next at-bat, Milwaukee tacked on an insurance run when Snell left a changeup hanging in the center of the strike zone — landing 428 feet over the center field fence to give Los Angeles a 4-2 deficit.

Snell was replaced after the home run and finished the night giving up only four hits, four runs and two walks.

For the second consecutive NLCS game, Jake Bauers has delivered.

The Milwaukee Brewers first baseman worked a 12-pitch at-bat in Game 2 on Monday, fouling off six straight pitches from Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto before taking ball four to load the bases with two outs. Christian Yelich then ripped a go-ahead RBI single into center field. The Brewers went on to win Game 2 7-4.

There was an overwhelming sense of deja vu in Game 3 on Wednesday.

Blake Snell had been dealing, retiring 14 Brewers batters in a row after giving up a leadoff homer to Jackson Chourio on the first pitch of the game. That streak ended when he walked Andrew Vaughn to lead off the top of the seventh. Enter Bauers. The 31-year-old fouled off five pitches from Snell, the most dangerous of which was a hard liner on a hanging slider that he pulled just foul to right before it could clear the stands.

Snell got away with that one. The next pitch, the 11th of the at-bat, however, a 97.8 mph fastball in the exact same location, would be a different story.

Bauers got all of it, driving the ball 412 feet to right field for a no-doubt, go-ahead home run.

Garrett Mitchell added on with a 428-footer of his own two pitches later, putting an end to the former Cy Young winner's night as the Brewers took a late 4-2 lead on the Dodgers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jake Bauers' brilliant at-bat gives Brewers lead in NLCS Game 3 over Dodgers

Will Smith has unlocked a new power.

Dad strength.

Smith, who welcomed in his third child alongside his wife, Cara, ahead of Wednesday night’s NLCS Game 3 matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers, showed off his newly found strength when the Dodgers needed it most.

Smith came up to the plate in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded after Brewers manager Pat Murphy made the questionable decision to leave right-handed pitcher Abner Uribe in the game, despite walking three of the four batters he faced in the inning.

The Dodgers catcher, who’s had his fair share of struggles in the postseason this year, needed to see only one pitch to capitalize on the moment after Uribe threw a 98.4 mph sinker in the middle of the strike zone.

Smith immediately launched the ball off the center field wall for a double and brought home Teoscar Hernandez and Kyle Tucker from third and second base, while Shohei Ohtani slid into third to make it a 2-1 lead for the Dodgers.

It was the first lead of the evening for Los Angeles, after they gave up a leadoff home run to Jackson Chourio on the opening pitch of the game.

After Smith’s double, the Brewers pulled Uribe from the game and brought in DL Hall.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made his fair share of strategic moves by having Max Muncy come off the bench to bat in place of Andy Pages after Tucker’s walk. He also went to another veteran by pulling Josue De Paula and having Kike Hernandez pinch-hit for him.

Hernandez went down swinging, while second baseman Tommy Edman went down looking.