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Max Muncy didn’t need advanced analytics or any underlying metrics to get to the heart of why the back-to-back defending champion Dodgers are suddenly on life support in the NLCS.
“It’s a pretty simple answer,” Muncy said after a home 6-2 Game 3 loss Wednesday dropped Los Angeles into a 3-0 series home. “We’re playing like s–t, they’re playing great. As simple as that.”
Unless the Dodgers can find a way to stop playing like, well, crap, then this NLCS could shape up to be the polar opposite of last year’s edition when the NL West squad swept Milwaukee in dominant fashion.
While this year’s version of the Brewers is better equipped to slay the Dodgers then last year, their dominance in the series so far has been surprising.
The Brewers are slashing .281/.373/.458 against Los Angeles’ pricey pitching staff, while the Dodgers are posting a meek .156/.264/.187 slash line against Milwaukee’s not-so-costly hurlers.
Milwaukee owns a 1.67 ERA in the series, limiting the Dodgers to just 15 hits spanning 27 innings and zero home runs.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, have posted a 5.40 ERA, surrendered 27 hits and five home runs in 25 innings.
Two of those home runs yielded Wednesday potentially swung this series for good.
Los Angeles took a 2-1 lead on Will Smith’s two-run double in the sixth inning before Blake Snell allowed back-to-back homers to Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell to put the Dodgers in a 4-2 hole.
The Brewers tacked on one run each in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to move one win away from their first World Series berth since 1982.
The Dodgers will have to become the second team in MLB history to rally from a 3-0 series hole if they want to join the rarified air of three-peat champions.
Playing a brand of baseball that doesn’t require a NSFW word would be a good start.
“I’ll talk to them tomorrow. They know what’s at stake,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve won four in a row a number of times this year, ten times, I think, something like that.
“Again, we’ve got to win tomorrow. That’s our only focus.”