The Dodgers walked out of Dodger Stadium on Wednesday with their three-peat chase hanging by a thread, beaten 6-2 by the Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. Milwaukee owns a 3-0 lead, leaving Los Angeles four straight wins away from an escape no club has managed in more than two decades.
Key takeaways
- Milwaukee took Game 3, 6-2, and can finish the NLCS sweep in Thursday’s Game 4.
- Tyler Glasnow will start for Los Angeles, which has won each of his previous seven postseason starts.
- Blake Snell struck out nine but gave up three home runs, including two in the decisive seventh inning.
- The Dodgers are 3-for-32 with runners in scoring position this postseason after Will Smith’s bases-loaded double.
- Teams leading a best-of-seven postseason series 3-0 have advanced 41 times in 42 chances.
A seventh-inning turn that changed the night
The Brewers struck immediately against Snell. Jackson Chourio drove Snell’s first pitch of the game into the right-center-field seats, putting Milwaukee ahead before the Dodgers had taken an at-bat.
Snell recovered sharply. He struck out the next three hitters in the opening inning and went on to retire 18 of 20, piling up nine strikeouts. By the end of the sixth, the ballpark had found its voice again after Will Smith snapped his slump with a two-run double, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Dodgers lead.
Then came the seventh, and the Brewers answered as they have throughout this series. Andrew Vaughn opened the inning with a seven-pitch walk. Jake Bauers battled Snell for 11 pitches before hitting a two-run homer. Garrett Mitchell followed with another long ball, and Snell’s night was over.
Roberts elected to send his left-hander back out despite Snell not having recorded an out beyond the sixth inning during an injury-marred regular season. The manager said he liked what he saw from Snell and hoped to get three more outs from him.
“I didn’t think they were picking him up very well,” Roberts said. “I was trying to get him through three additional hitters. I felt good about Blake’s stuff.”
Snell had not allowed a homer over his previous 10 starts, including nine regular-season outings and his NL Division Series start against Atlanta. He yielded three Wednesday. Still, the Dodgers’ offense offered little margin for error. Smith’s double accounted for the club’s lone breakthrough with runners aboard, and Los Angeles has struggled badly in those situations all postseason.
“It stinks, but that’s baseball,” Snell said. “The big question is how we respond and how we compete. We have to come together and find a win.”
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy pointed to his club’s response after the Dodgers briefly grabbed the lead.
“That’s what the game is about,” Murphy said. “Being focused enough to answer every time. It’s resilience, belief and all of those things. Our players have responded.”
Four wins needed, beginning with Glasnow
Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT and 5 p.m. PT on FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One. Glasnow gets the ball for Los Angeles, and the Dodgers have not lost in the seven postseason games he has started. In three elimination starts with Tampa Bay, he posted a 3.60 ERA.
The bullpen should largely be ready behind him. Justin Wrobleski may be the exception after working 1 2/3 innings and throwing 32 pitches in Game 3. Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are not expected to be available, with the Dodgers planning to preserve them for potential starts in Games 5 and 6 should they extend the series.
Miguel Rojas said the club has reached the point where there is no remaining cushion.
“It feels like the margin for error we had earlier is gone,” Rojas said. “There’s nothing we can do about that now. We have to show up tomorrow and win every pitch.”
Max Muncy offered an even blunter assessment: “We’re playing terribly. They’re playing really well. It’s that simple. There’s no reason to make it more complicated.”
The history is daunting. A 3-0 advantage in a best-of-seven postseason set has produced 41 series wins in 42 tries, with 32 ending in sweeps. Only two teams have pushed such a series to Game 7. The only club to complete the comeback was the 2004 Red Sox, with Roberts on that roster.
Roberts believes the possibility remains alive, even if he does not intend to lean on his own October history in the clubhouse.
“It can happen,” Roberts said. “I’ve experienced it. That team was battle-tested, and I think this group has been through plenty, too.”
Los Angeles fought through elimination pressure on the road to its last two championships, rallying from a 2-1 deficit against the Padres in the 2024 NLDS and from a 3-2 hole against the Blue Jays in the 2025 World Series. Those comebacks required consecutive victories. This one demands four.
The Dodgers did put together 10 winning streaks of at least four games during the regular season, though none carried the weight of Thursday night. Kiké Hernández said the club understands the size of the task.
“We haven’t been this far behind before, but we’ve had our backs against the wall a lot and gotten through it,” Hernández said. “We’re trying to do it again.”
Roberts’ message will be smaller than the mountain in front of his team: win the next pitch, then the next inning, then the next day. His players already know the 2004 story.
“They’ve watched the documentary,” Roberts said. “They understand that it’s possible.”
