Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back home runs off Blake Snell to reclaim the lead in the seventh inning as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday night to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers had just taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth before being stunned. The loss pushed the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination. They had trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series only once previously in franchise history, when they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.
Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Snell had retired 14 consecutive batters entering the seventh. The two-time Cy Young Award winner’s first pitch of the game was driven out of the park by Jackson Chourio, and his last was Mitchell’s solo shot.
Andrew Vaughn drew a seven-pitch walk to open the seventh and was replaced by pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Bauers followed with a 412ft drive to right field on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, giving Milwaukee a 3-2 lead as much of the Brewers’ dugout spilled on to the field in celebration. Mitchell came up next and launched a 428ft shot to right-center, chasing Snell.
Snell allowed four runs on four hits over six-plus innings, striking out nine and walking two.
The Brewers are on the verge of sweeping the Dodgers in a reversal of last year’s NLCS, when Los Angeles eliminated Milwaukee in four games. The Brewers have never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series.
Milwaukee extended their lead to 5-2 in the eighth on a wild pitch by Justin Wrobleski that scored Brice Turang, who had reached on an infield single to third and advanced on William Contreras’ single. They added another run on Joey Ortiz’s two-strike RBI single in the ninth.
The offensively starved Dodgers had taken their first lead of the night, 2-1, on Will Smith’s two-run double off reliever Abner Uribe in the sixth.
Uribe, who replaced rookie starter Robert Gasser, loaded the bases with walks to Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who entered the game batting .043, doubled to left-center for his first hit of the NLCS.
DL Hall replaced Uribe, allowing one hit and striking out two before handing the ball to Trevor Megill in the eighth.
The Dodgers had fallen behind almost immediately when Chourio homered off Snell’s first pitch, with fans still making their way to their seats.
Mitchell then walked and Cooper Pratt singled in the second before Snell retired 14 consecutive batters, six by strikeout, only to unravel in the seventh.
Los Angeles put runners on base in all but three innings but struggled to bring them home. They have yet to hit a home run in the NLCS.
Ohtani went 1 for 2 with a walk while batting sixth, his lowest spot in the lineup since joining the Dodgers three years ago.
