Blake Snell takes the ball Wednesday night with the Dodgers down two games to none, and the assignment could hardly be clearer: give Los Angeles a foothold in the National League Championship Series before the Brewers turn a strong opening week into command of the whole matchup.
The result
Milwaukee carries a 2-0 series lead into Game 3 at Dodger Stadium after taking both games at home. The Brewers have put the two-time defending champions on their heels, but they are heading into a ballpark and a postseason atmosphere that will demand a different kind of finish.
Game 3 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT and 5 p.m. PT, with FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One carrying the broadcast.
The Brewers have been close to this stage before. In 2018, Milwaukee held a 2-1 NLCS edge over the Dodgers and ultimately played a Game 7 at home, falling one win short of its first World Series appearance since 1982. Christian Yelich is the lone current Brewer from that club. The Dodgers still have Kiké Hernández and Max Muncy from that series.
There is another recent memory in this matchup, too: Los Angeles swept Milwaukee in last year’s NLCS. The Brewers have changed the early tone this time, but a 2-0 advantage is not a pennant. A road win Wednesday would put them within one victory of finishing the job.
The rotation next
Robert Gasser gets the Game 3 start for Milwaukee, while Snell goes for Los Angeles. Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, has made only 20 regular-season starts across two years with the Dodgers, though he owns a 2.16 ERA in those outings.
His October record includes important work during last season’s title run, including the NLCS opener in Milwaukee. This year’s NL Division Series appearance was less crisp, with Snell laboring through an inefficient outing. Still, October has a way of shrinking the memory to the next start, and the Dodgers need this one badly.
“It’s always how you finish,” Snell said recently, a line that fits a pitcher whose ability has rarely been in question when he has been able to take his turn.
Los Angeles also plans to start Shohei Ohtani, despite a difficult postseason at the plate. Ohtani is 3-for-20 with seven strikeouts and no extra-base hits in the playoffs. He has also gone 24 consecutive games without a home run, a drought dating to Aug. 19.
Questions have followed Ohtani’s workload and the condition of his left knee, including whether his pitching work should have been halted earlier and whether his return from the injured list came too quickly. Those decisions may be revisited after the season. For now, the Dodgers are trying to extend it, and Ohtani intends to remain in the lineup.
That leaves the Dodgers with their established stakes: Snell must settle the game, and Ohtani must give an offense that has stalled in the first two contests some of the force it has been missing. For Milwaukee, Gasser and the road club have a chance to move one step closer to a World Series trip that has waited since 1982.
