LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are still woozy from the gut punch suffered in Game 3, but now face a sobering reality that their odds are long and the Milwaukee Brewers have several chances to deliver the knock out blow in the National League Championship Series.
“This one’s up there. The only one I can think of like that was maybe probably Game 5 against the Nationals in ‘19, but yeah, this one was tough,” said Kiké Hernández, whose 97 postseason games with the Dodgers are the most in franchise history. “It felt like once Will got that double, we were kind of gonna break out, and get back in the series. Now we dug an even bigger hole for ourselves.”
Will Smith’s sixth-inning drive looked like a potential home run but instead hit off the left field wall for a two-run double. Either way it was cathartic for Smith, who had just one hit in 26 at-bats in the postseason before that double gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
“It’s really hard to put into words, because you feel like you finally break through and Will with the big hit, you feel really good for him, because we all know he’s been struggling at the plate,” said shortstop Miguel Rojas, who had one of the Dodgers’ five hits in Game 3. “When that ball hit the wall, you feel like you could have gotten more, you know? That’s been the story of the series so far. Offensively we haven’t done our job, and it feel like we lost all the room for error we had earlier in the series. But we can’t do anything about it, we just have to come here tomorrow and win every pitch. That’s the mentality we have to have.”
After the double, the Dodgers still had runners on second and third with only one out. Hernández, pinch-hitting, struck out, as did Tommy Edman.
“For me, I took two strikes and swung at a ball,” Hernández said. “It’s just one of those points in time where it happens to go that way, and it just happens to be at the worst time of the season.
“We just weren’t able to put a couple more at-bats together in that sixth inning, and that was it. We didn’t add on, like they have in all three games, and that’s just the story of it.”
“I think with their pen, I felt it was important to try to get a lead, which we did with Will, and then get an opportunity to get some breathing room to tack on,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s certainly urgency where you want to keep their back end of the guys in the pen. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”
Blake Snell was cruising, with only 81 pitches through six innings having retired 14 batters in a row. Manager Dave Roberts’ plan was to leave Snell in to face the three left-handed batters to open the seventh inning before turning things over to right-hander Evan Phillips.
Snell walked Andrew Vaughn on seven pitches, then Jake Bauers battled for 11 pitches before hitting the two-run home run that turned the game around. Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell homered too. Snell was done, having retired none of the three lefties, now trailing 4-2.
Bauers is only two years younger than Snell, and was in the Tampa Bay Rays system from 2015-18. Bauers played 96 games in his first major league season for the Rays in 2018, the year his teammate Snell won his first Cy Young Award. Now in his seventh organization, Bauers had his best season this year with the Brewers and just turned 31 last week. He turned around Games 2 and 3 in this NLCS with long battles, including a 12-pitch walk by Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Monday in Milwaukee.
“I’ve seen all the ups and downs he’s been through, and it’s been a lot of downs. For him to go through this right now, he’s earned it. Hats off to him, what an at-bat,” Snell said of Bauers. “I threw everything I had, and then a fastball down the middle. If I could locate that better, who knows what would have happened? This is the best I’ve ever seen him play. It’s a good at-bat. Hats off to him, but the walk’s what really frustrated me, with Vaughn.”
Snell did not allow a home run this season, totaling 10 starts and 46 1/3 innings before giving up three home runs on Wednesday night.
“Three home runs in a game, and I didn’t give up one the whole year. To have three in a game is pretty frustrating but it’s something I’ve gotta learn from,” Snell said. “It’s part of their journey, too. It’s only gonna make me better along mine.”
Long and the short of it
The Dodgers have scored seven total runs in the three games of this NLCS, while the Brewers have scored seven runs in the seventh inning or later. After the three runs off Snell in the seventh inning of Game 3, Milwaukee tacked on single runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
The Dodgers have scored in five different innings in three games, and after four of those innings, the Brewers scored immediately in their next time up.
Milwaukee, tied for 28th in the majors with 154 home runs in the regular season, has five home runs in three games in the NLCS. The Dodgers, tied for seventh in the majors with 204 homers this year, haven’t yet hit one in this series.
Los Angeles has two hits in 16 at-bats (.125) with runners in scoring position in the NLCS, while Milwaukee has nine hits in 27 such at-bats (.333).
“We have an amazing pitching staff, and it’s really hard to pitch when you have no run support. That’s on us offensively,” Rojas said. “We haven’t done what we’re supposed to do, and keep building the momentum and getting more runs at the times we have the opportunities with runners on base. I don’t care how good you are, it’s really hard of having to be perfect with every pitch. So far it’s been the offense’s fault.”
“It’s a pretty simple answer,” said Max Muncy, who struck out with two on in the sixth inning. “We’re playing like shit, and they’re playing great. It’s as simple as that.”