Back-to-back homers stun Dodgers
Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back home runs off Blake Snell in the seventh inning, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, and the Milwaukee Brewers went on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday. The win gives Milwaukee a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers had just taken their first lead of the game in the bottom of the sixth before the Brewers' outburst.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
Andrew Vaughn opened the seventh with a seven-pitch walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Bauers then hit a 412-foot shot to right field on the 11th pitch of his at-bat, giving Milwaukee a 3-2 lead as most of the Brewers' dugout came onto the field to celebrate. Mitchell followed with a 428-foot drive to right-center, chasing Snell from the game.[S1]
Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, had retired 14 consecutive batters before the seventh. He allowed four runs on four hits in six innings, struck out nine and walked two. The first pitch he threw was a home run by Jackson Chourio, and his last pitch was Mitchell's solo shot.[S1]
Dodgers on brink of elimination
The loss pushed the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination. They had only trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series once previously in franchise history, getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series. Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium.[S1]
The Brewers are on the verge of sweeping the Dodgers in what would be a reversal of last year's NLCS, when the Dodgers eliminated Milwaukee in four games. The Brewers have never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series.[S1]
The offensively starved Dodgers took their first lead, 2-1, on Will Smith's two-run double off reliever Abner Uribe in the sixth. Uribe followed rookie starter Robert Gasser and loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who came in hitting .043, doubled to left-center for his first hit of the NLCS. DL Hall took over from Uribe, allowing one hit and striking out two before turning it over to Trevor Megill in the eighth.[S1]
Brewers add insurance runs
The Brewers extended their lead to 5-2 in the eighth on Justin Wrobleski's wild pitch that scored Brice Turang, who reached on an infield single to third and moved up on William Contreras' single. They added another run in the ninth on Joey Ortiz's two-strike RBI single.[S1]
The Dodgers had runners on base in all but three innings but could not get enough across. They have yet to homer in the NLCS. Ohtani was 1 for 2 with a walk hitting sixth in the order, the lowest he has batted since joining the Dodgers three years ago.[S1]
