Blake Snell will take the ball Wednesday night with the Dodgers back home and down two games to none in the National League Championship Series, a hole that leaves little room for another quiet offensive night. Game 3 against Milwaukee is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. local time, and Los Angeles sees its return home as the point where the series can begin to change.
The result
The Brewers swept the opening two games in Milwaukee, putting the Dodgers in a 2-0 series deficit as Los Angeles pursues a third consecutive World Series title. Catcher Will Smith kept the message simple after the second loss: the club needs cleaner baseball and must focus on taking the next game before looking any farther ahead.
That starts with an offense that has not yet found much traction against Milwaukee’s relief corps. The Brewers threw five perfect innings out of the bullpen in Game 2 and have leaned heavily on Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill. Only seven opposing hitters have faced Milwaukee relievers outside that trio during the series.
There is still depth behind those three, with DL Hall, JoJo Romero, Chad Patrick and Antonio Senzatela available in the Brewers’ bullpen. But the schedule now asks Milwaukee to cover three games in three consecutive nights, and the Dodgers will look for longer looks at arms that have not carried the first two games.
Lineup decisions could be part of the response. Shohei Ohtani is 3-for-20 this postseason, all singles, while dealing with a left knee issue and a right biceps injury. Los Angeles has to decide whether the three-time National League MVP is healthy enough to remain in his usual spot or whether a day off, potentially with top prospect Josue De Paula taking his place, would offer needed rest.
Kyle Tucker has continued to work quality plate appearances from the eighth spot, making him a candidate to move higher in the order. Smith is 1-for-23 in the postseason, though his three line drives in Game 2 all found gloves. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy have given the Dodgers solid turns at the plate and bring extensive October experience.
Andy Pages has also competed well and owns a particularly strong history against Game 3 Milwaukee starter Robert Gasser: 4-for-5 with a double, a home run and four balls struck at 101 mph or harder. A move into the third slot is among the possible adjustments. Kiké Hernández could also receive another start at second base, bringing a proven postseason presence into a game with the season’s direction at stake.
Milwaukee’s first two starters did not work deep into the games. Jacob Misiorowski lasted 4 1/3 innings, and Henderson went four innings. Gasser starts Wednesday, with Dustin May a possible Game 4 option Thursday. The Brewers may need quicker decisions from their starters again, but manager Pat Murphy cannot necessarily use his bullpen with the same urgency for the remainder of a three-games-in-three-days stretch.
The rotation next
Snell gets the Game 3 assignment for Los Angeles against Gasser, and Tyler Glasnow is lined up for Game 4. The Dodgers will need both starters to avoid handing Milwaukee the kind of traffic that has defined its offense.
The Brewers were the majors’ toughest lineup to coax into chasing during the regular season, posting a 26.9% chase rate. Their 44.1% overall swing rate was also the lowest in MLB and well below the 47.7% league average. Snell’s usual walk concerns therefore matter, but he produced the lowest walk rate of his career this season, albeit over a limited sample.
Milwaukee is not built primarily on slugging. Keeping runners off base can narrow its paths to scoring, an especially important assignment for Snell and Glasnow because both have had difficulty controlling the running game. The Brewers were also relatively less productive against left-handed pitching, giving Snell a favorable handedness matchup if he can attack the zone.
Manager Dave Roberts likes the Dodgers’ pitching alignment, the condition of the bullpen and the chance to play at home. The club has recovered from postseason trouble before: it overcame a 3-2 World Series deficit against Toronto last October by winning Games 6 and 7 on the road; won two straight over San Diego in the 2024 NLDS; and climbed out of both 2-0 and 3-1 holes against Atlanta in the 2020 NLCS.
Each of those seasons ended with a championship. That history does not erase a difficult start against Milwaukee, but it gives the Dodgers a familiar blueprint: get a starter through the early innings, create pressure on a deeper but increasingly taxed bullpen, and let a veteran lineup turn one win into a different series.
