Will Smith arrived at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday carrying more than a postseason slump. Earlier in the day, his wife Cara shared that the couple had welcomed their third daughter, Carter, continuing a family run of October arrivals.
By nightfall, Smith had delivered the swing the Dodgers had been waiting on. His two-run double in the sixth briefly put Los Angeles ahead, but Milwaukee answered late and pulled away for a 6-2 win in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
Quick facts
- Milwaukee won 6-2 at Dodger Stadium and owns a 3-0 NLCS lead.
- Smith snapped a 1-for-25 postseason skid with a go-ahead, bases-loaded double.
- Shohei Ohtani walked to fill the bases in the sixth and later recorded a 113.5 mph single.
- The Dodgers have five runs in the series, no home runs, and are 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
- Game 4 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT and 5 p.m. PT on FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One.
Los Angeles had been held scoreless through five innings by Brewers starter Robert Gasser when the lineup finally created some traffic against reliever Abner Uribe. Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker opened the sixth with consecutive walks, and Ohtani followed with another free pass to load the bases with one out.
Smith, batting seventh after hitting third in Game 1 and fifth in Game 2, drove Uribe’s pitch into the left-center gap for a two-run double. It was the Dodgers’ first lead of the night and a needed answer from a catcher who had been searching for one clean moment at the plate.
It did not hold. Milwaukee hit two late home runs to erase the deficit and send Los Angeles to the brink of elimination.
Still, the sixth offered a small offensive pulse from the club’s struggling stars. Ohtani, moved down from cleanup to the No. 6 spot, also hit a single up the middle in the eighth at 113.5 mph, his hardest-hit ball since June 20.
Manager Dave Roberts reshaped the order in an effort to create a longer, less predictable lineup. Tucker moved into the fourth spot, while Ohtani and Smith were pushed lower as Roberts looked to alternate left- and right-handed hitters and make Milwaukee’s bullpen decisions more difficult.
Roberts said the change was intended to give Smith a different look and let the game come to him, while placing him near the lineup’s wraparound point. The manager said he liked the overall depth of the revised order rather than viewing the switch as protection for one particular hitter.
The new alignment produced its clearest result in the sixth, but the Dodgers could not add on. Their two runs from Smith’s double were all they managed, while Milwaukee has hit five homers through three games.
“We need to be better offensively and have better at-bats with runners in scoring position,” Smith said. “We have to get back to who we are, keep fighting one game at a time, and that is how we will get there.”
For Smith, the night held both a family milestone and a long-awaited hard swing. For the Dodgers, it was only a flicker, and Game 4 now stands as their last chance to extend the series.
