10/15/2026 03:10:00
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10/15 03:08 CDT Brewers stun Dodgers with back-to-back homers in 7th inning and
ride 6-2 win to 3-0 lead in NLCS
Brewers stun Dodgers with back-to-back homers in 7th inning and ride 6-2 win to
3-0 lead in NLCS
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --- The Milwaukee Brewers hit the second-fewest home runs in
baseball during the regular season, even as they topped the majors with 103
wins.
Maybe they were saving their biggest swings for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell launched back-to-back homers off Blake Snell
in the seventh inning, and the Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday to
build a 3-0 cushion in the National League Championship Series.
Jackson Chourio also went deep on the first pitch of the game to help the
Brewers close within one win of their first NL pennant. Milwaukee was in the
American League when the franchise reached its only World Series, a seven-game
loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982.
"Job's not finished yet," Mitchell said.
Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where the Brewers can become the first
major league club to complete a postseason sweep after getting swept by that
same opponent in the previous postseason.
Los Angeles took all four games against Milwaukee in the NLCS last year.
The Dodgers had just gone ahead 2-1 in the sixth inning before getting stunned
by the Brewers in their three-run seventh. The loss pushed the two-time
defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination.
"All three games we've played so far, and hopefully that continues, where just
every time they score, we come back and score," Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy
said. "That's not easy to do in baseball."
It was the fifth comeback victory in seven postseason games for the Brewers,
who have never beaten Los Angeles in three previous playoff series.
The only other time the Dodgers trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason
series, they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.
The lone team in big league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a
best-of-seven postseason series was the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 AL
Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
"We've won four in a row a number of times this year," Dodgers manager Dave
Roberts said. "We've got to win tomorrow. That's our only focus."
Coming into the seventh, Snell had retired 14 batters in a row. But the first
pitch of the game thrown by the two-time Cy Young Award winner was hit for a
home run by Chourio, and his last pitch was Mitchell's solo shot.
Andrew Vaughn drew a seven-pitch walk to open the seventh and was replaced by
pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Bauers followed with a 412-foot drive to right
field on the 11th pitch of his at-bat for a 3-2 lead as most of the players in
Milwaukee's dugout came onto the field to celebrate.
"I was looking for a fastball, and I didn't want to miss it," said Bauers, who
had a team-leading 26 of Milwaukee's 154 regular-season homers.
It was his latest relentless plate appearance, too, after Bauers drew a
12-pitch walk from Yoshinobu Yamamoto that helped the Brewers go ahead early in
Game 2.
"I think what changed for me this year was I stopped caring about results,"
Bauers said. "I started caring about competing. I started caring about being in
the moment and getting out of my own way."
Watching Bauers work over Snell was "super sick," Mitchell said.
And then it was his turn.
Mitchell's drive traveled 428 feet to right-center. That chased Snell, who
hadn't given up a home run in 46 1/3 innings this year entering the game. It
was the first time in his career he served up back-to-back homers to
left-handed hitters and only the second time he gave up multiple longballs to
left-handed batters in one game.
Bauers and Mitchell became just the third pair of left-handed hitters with
consecutive postseason home runs off the same left-handed pitcher. Kyle
Schwarber and Bryce Harper did it for Philadelphia against Atlanta reliever
Dylan Lee in an NL Wild Card Series this year, and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
connected for the New York Yankees off Bill Sherdel of the St. Louis Cardinals
in the 1928 World Series.
Milwaukee has five homers in the NLCS and eight this postseason.
Snell gave up four runs and four hits in six-plus innings. He struck out nine
and walked two.
The Brewers extended their lead to 5-2 in the eighth on Justin Wrobleski's wild
pitch that scored Brice Turang, who reached on an infield single and advanced
to third on William Contreras' single. They added another run on Joey Ortiz's
two-strike RBI single in the ninth.
The offensively starved Dodgers took a 2-1 lead on Will Smith's two-run double
off reliever Abner Uribe in the sixth.
After rookie starter Robert Gasser pitched five shutout innings, Uribe entered
and loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernndez, Kyle Tucker and Shohei
Ohtani. Smith, who was 1 for 25 in the playoffs, doubled off the left-center
fence with one out for his first hit of the NLCS.
DL Hall took over from Uribe and stranded runners at second and third by
striking out pinch-hitter Kik Hernndez and Tommy Edman.
Hall allowed one hit in 2 1/3 scoreless innings to improve to 3-0 in these
playoffs. Trevor Megill got four outs for his second save of the series and
fourth this postseason.
The Dodgers played from behind again after the 22-year-old Chourio connected
for his third career leadoff homer in the postseason as fans were still heading
to their seats.
After that, Mitchell walked and Cooper Pratt singled in the second before Snell
retired 14 in a row --- six on strikeouts --- before getting hammered in the
seventh.
The Dodgers had runners on base in all but three innings, but couldn't get
enough across. They have yet to homer in the NLCS and are 3 for 32 with runners
in scoring position this postseason.
Ohtani was 1 for 2 with a walk while hitting sixth in the order, the lowest
he's batted since joining the Dodgers three years ago.
___
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