Brewers beat Dodgers 6-2, take 3-0 NLCS lead

The Milwaukee Brewers hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday night and take a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series, pushing the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination.

Jake Bauers hit a 412-foot, two-run homer to right field to give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead in the seventh, and Garrett Mitchell followed with a 428-foot solo shot to right-centre off the same left-handed reliever, according to The Associated Press. Bauers and Mitchell became the third pair of left-handed hitters to homer consecutively off the same left-handed pitcher in a postseason game.

Jackson Chourio started the scoring by homering on the first pitch of the game off Dodgers starter Blake Snell. It was the third leadoff homer of Chourio’s postseason career. Snell had not allowed a home run in 46 1/3 innings this season before that pitch. He gave up four runs and four hits over six-plus innings, struck out nine and walked two, and had retired 14 straight batters before the seventh.

Los Angeles had taken a 2-1 lead in the sixth on Will Smith’s two-run double off Abner Uribe. Milwaukee then added a run in the eighth when Justin Wrobleski’s wild pitch scored Brice Turang, making it 5-2, and Joey Ortiz drove in a run with a two-strike single in the ninth.

Rookie Robert Gasser worked five shutout innings for the Brewers. DL Hall followed with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and is 3-0 this postseason, and Trevor Megill earned his second save of the series.

Shohei Ohtani went 1 for 2 with a walk while batting sixth, the lowest he has hit in the Dodgers lineup since joining the club three years ago. The Dodgers have not hit a home run in the series and are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position this postseason, the AP reported.

Milwaukee, which won a major league-best 103 games in the regular season despite hitting the second-fewest home runs in baseball, has now won five of its seven playoff games after coming from behind. It had never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series. Bauers led the club with 26 homers among its 154 in the regular season.

“Job’s not finished yet,” Mitchell said.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “every time they score, we come back and score.” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team’s “only focus” is the next game.

Only one team in baseball history has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven postseason series, the 2004 Boston Red Sox. The Dodgers had previously trailed 3-0 in such a series only in the 1966 World Series, when they were swept by Baltimore. A Milwaukee win in Game 4 would make the Brewers the first major league club to complete a postseason sweep after being swept by the same opponent the previous postseason, the AP noted.

Game 4 is Thursday, Oct. 15, at Dodger Stadium. MLB.com listed the first pitch at 8 p.m. ET, moved up from 9 p.m. ET. In the American League Championship Series, the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays are tied 1-1, with Game 3 set for 1 p.m. ET Thursday in Cleveland.

Via The Associated Press, NBC Sports and MLB.com.

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