The Dodgers embarked on this postseason in search of World Series three-peat history.
If they are still to accomplish that now, they’ll have to make even more daunting history along the way.
A year after they swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, the shoe is suddenly, stunningly, unbelievably in danger of being put on the other foot.
With a 6-2 loss in Game 3 on Wednesday, the Dodgers are on the verge of not only elimination, but a humiliating sweep.
And unless they can become only the second team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series, the way they got there Wednesday will reverberate long into the winter –– serving as the potential death-nail in their modern-day dynasty.
In the sixth inning, the Dodgers had finally captured momentum in this previously one-sided matchup, taking a 2-1 lead on a bases-loaded two-run double from Will Smith against hard-throwing Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe.
It was the kind of moment the Dodgers had been waiting for all series: A big hit with runners on base. A hard-nosed rally against the Brewers’ dominant bullpen. A late-game lead that seemed to take their season off life support.
Minutes later, it would all disappear.
After six nearly flawless innings from Blake Snell, in which he had retired 18 of 20 batters after a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the game from Jackson Chourio, the two-time Cy Young Award winner returned to the mound in the seventh with Dodger Stadium still pulsing.
Then he issued a leadoff walk, and got locked in an epic battle with Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers.
Just as he had done to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a 12-pitch duel during Game 2, Bauers refused to be put away, working an 11-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off five two-strike offerings.
Finally, having exhausted all other options, Snell challenged him with a fastball in the heart of the plate.
Bauers was ready for it, clobbering a 412-foot shot halfway up the right-field pavilion.
Chavez Ravine went silent. The Brewers had regained a 3-2 lead.
The Milwaukee dugout had barely ceased celebrating before Garrett Mitchell stunned the place again.
Two pitches after Bauers’ blast, Mitchell also took Snell deep on a no-doubt drive to right. This time, it was on a hanging changeup, sending another shockwave through a dazed crowd of 50,708. And this time, there would be no way back for the Dodgers’ offense, which went missing again after its sixth-inning outburst.
In some ways, the Dodgers’ most costly sequence might have come at the end of the sixth, when they failed to tack on more after Smith’s two-run drive.
Shohei Ohtani, having drawn the third walk against Uribe, seemed to get a late read on Smith’s ball and only made it from first to third on the play. Then, after the Brewers turned to left-hander DL Hall, Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman both struck out to end the inning with Ohtani and Smith stranded in scoring position.
That would prove to be the Dodgers’ last legitimate scoring opportunity on Wednesday.
Over the final three frames, a two-out eighth-inning single from Ohtani –– who, base-running mistake aside, took a step forward after speculation of a benching following Game 2 by reaching base three times –– would be their only offense.
The Brewers, meanwhile, tacked on insurance runs in the eighth and ninth en route to putting the Dodgers’ season on the brink.
At some point, of course, the Dodgers’ dynasty was bound to end.
After so many close calls the last two years, their October luck was eventually due to run out.
But not even in their worst nightmares could they have imagined a scenario like this, a loss like this, a potential sweep like this.
Now, they either have to make history, or become history.
Even for the two-time defending champions, it feels like a task too big.