Brewers Beat Dodgers 6-2, Take 3-0 NLCS Lead, Near First Pennant Since 1982

The Milwaukee Brewers are one win away from their first World Series appearance since 1982 after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Jackson Chourio opened the game with a home run on the first pitch he saw from Dodgers starter Blake Snell, and after Los Angeles briefly took the lead on a two-run double by Will Smith in the sixth inning, Milwaukee answered immediately with back-to-back home runs from Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell in the top of the seventh that chased Snell from the game and put it out of reach.

The numbers

The final score was 6-2, with Milwaukee scoring in four separate innings while holding the defending, back-to-back World Series champion Dodgers to a single two-run frame. According to the official box score, Bauers' two-run shot traveled 412 feet and Mitchell's solo homer went 428 feet, both measured off Snell in the top of the seventh, after he had retired 14 consecutive batters. Snell took the loss, charged with four earned runs on nine strikeouts and two walks over six innings. DL Hall earned the win in relief, his third of this postseason, and closer Trevor Megill picked up his fourth save of October. Milwaukee starter Robert Gasser held the Dodgers scoreless across five innings before handing the ball to a bullpen that had to work around a blown save by Abner Uribe in the sixth, when Smith's double tied the game. A wild pitch by reliever Justin Wrobleski and an RBI single by Joey Ortiz padded Milwaukee's lead late.

The official postseason standings page shows the Brewers one victory from clinching the pennant, with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles has not hit a home run anywhere in this NLCS and is batting 3-for-32 with runners in scoring position across the series, a slump ESPN's recap of the game noted has left Los Angeles searching for answers heading into an elimination-adjacent Game 4.

How we got here

Milwaukee finished the regular season with a franchise-record 103 wins, the best mark in the National League, powered in part by right-hander Jacob Misiorowski's league-leading 1.80 ERA. The run has been built on pitching depth and a lineup willing to grind out at-bats rather than one marquee star, a contrast to a Dodgers roster anchored by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman that has won the last two championships.

This particular matchup carries a score to settle. The Dodgers swept Milwaukee in four games in last year's NLCS on their way to a second consecutive title, and Brewers manager Pat Murphy had predicted before this year's rematch that his team would be "more ready than we were last time" and that the series would likely go the distance. Instead, Milwaukee has flipped the script completely: a win in Game 4 would make the Brewers the first team in major league history to sweep a postseason series the year after being swept by that same opponent.

The turnaround also breaks a longer pattern of October frustration for the franchise. The Brewers had lost 12 consecutive road playoff games dating back to 2018 before this postseason, and Wednesday's comeback was their fifth in seven games this month — a recurring theme for a team that has repeatedly answered deficits rather than folding under them.

Who's affected

For a Milwaukee franchise that last reached the World Series in 1982, when the Brewers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, a pennant now would end the longest active championship-series drought in the National League Central and set up the city's biggest sports moment in more than four decades. For the Dodgers, elimination would end a run of back-to-back titles and cut short, at least for this season, a roster built around some of the sport's highest-paid talent. Ohtani has been dropped as low as sixth in the batting order during this series, an unusually low spot for a player who led the team much of the year, and has struggled to drive in runners when Los Angeles has needed it most.

Reaction

"That's not easy to do in baseball," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of his team's repeated ability to answer after falling behind.

Outfielder Garrett Mitchell, who hit the decisive home run in the seventh, kept his comments short afterward in remarks carried by the Associated Press: "Job's not finished yet." Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, facing a team now on the brink of elimination, did not dwell on the broader stakes: "We've got to win tomorrow. That's our only focus." Jake Bauers, describing the at-bat before his two-run homer, said he was "looking for a fastball" off Snell and "didn't want to miss it" once he got one.

What happens next

Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, with Los Angeles needing a win simply to extend the series and Milwaukee needing one more victory to reach its first World Series since 1982. A Brewers win would send the team to face either the Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Guardians, who remain tied 1-1 in the American League Championship Series with Game 3 set for Thursday afternoon in Cleveland. Should the Dodgers rally to force a Game 5, the series would shift back to Milwaukee for the remainder, giving the Brewers a chance to clinch in front of their own fans for the first time this October.