The Milwaukee Brewers pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to the brink of elimination in their bid for a third straight World Series title. The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-2 with a walk but could not prevent his team's defeat.
Milwaukee came back to beat the Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 of the 2026 Major League Baseball National League Championship Series, a best-of-seven matchup, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on the 15th, Korea time. The Brewers now lead the series 3-0 and need just one more win to reach the World Series. The Dodgers must win all four remaining games to keep their bid for a third consecutive title alive.
Milwaukee seized the early advantage when star hitter Jackson Chourio led off the first inning with a solo home run. Chourio jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Dodgers starter Blake Snell that was left over the middle of the plate and drove it over the right-field fence.
It was the 17th time since 1988, when MLB began compiling pitch-tracking data, that a leadoff hitter homered on the first pitch of a postseason game.
Chourio did the same thing against the Dodgers in Game 2 of last year's NLCS on Oct. 16, taking Yoshinobu Yamamoto deep. He has now hit a first-pitch leadoff home run in the postseason against the same team in consecutive years.
The game then turned into a pitchers' duel, with the one-run margin holding into the top of the sixth. Milwaukee surrendered the lead while pitching in the bottom of the sixth.
Abner Uribe, the second pitcher out of the bullpen, walked three batters to load the bases with one out, then gave up a two-run double to left-center field by Dodgers catcher Will Smith to fall behind 2-1.
But Milwaukee flipped the game back in its favor in the top of the seventh. After Andrew Vaughn drew a walk to put a runner on first with no outs, Jake Bauers battled Snell through 11 pitches before launching a two-run homer over the right-field wall.
That was not the end of it. The next batter, Garrett Mitchell, also went over the right-field fence for back-to-back home runs that finished Snell. Having taken a 4-2 lead on the consecutive homers, Milwaukee added an insurance run in the eighth. Brice Turang and William Contreras hit back-to-back singles off the Dodgers' Roki Sasaki to put runners on first and third with one out, and with Christian Yelich at the plate, reliever Justin Wrobleski threw a wild pitch that allowed Turang to score from third.
Milwaukee tacked on another run in the top of the ninth to break the Dodgers' will to rally. Milwaukee's Cooper Pratt went 3-for-4 with a run scored, while Mitchell finished 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and a run.
Ohtani, the Dodgers superstar who has been dropped to sixth in the batting order amid the lingering effects of an injury and a hitting slump, went 1-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch, but his effort was not enough to stave off the loss.