There’s a difference between being the most talented team in baseball and being the best team when the games matter most. The Dodgers have spent years assembling a roster capable of overwhelming opponents, and the pursuit of a third consecutive World Series championship appeared to be a natural extension of considerable advantages. The Brewers, however, are making the proposition increasingly difficult to sustain. After beating the defending champions in Game Three of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), they have taken a commanding 3-0 lead and moved to within a victory of their first World Series appearance since 1982.
Significantly, the Brewers’ campaign has not depended on one extraordinary performance or a single weakness in the Dodgers’ lineup. They have won in different ways, responding to adversity while making the most of their opportunities. They took the first two games at home, including a 7-4 triumph in Game Two, during which William Contreras delivered three hits and three runs batted in. In Game Three, rookie Robert Gasser held the erstwhile favorites scoreless through five innings, allowing the visitors to establish control before the competition briefly moved ahead, 2-1, in the sixth. Jackson Chourio had already opened the game with a home run off Blake Snell, but the decisive moment came in the seventh, when Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit consecutive homers to restore the lead. They added another run in the eighth and relied on their pitching to close out the victory. This is the type of collective response that makes a team difficult to eliminate: When one part of the lineup goes quiet, another finds a way to contribute.
The contrast with the Dodgers is stark, to say the least. They have the financial resources, established stars, and championship experience to justify lofty expectations. Yet the seemingly decided edge has not translated into consistent production against the Brewers; in Game Three, the offense managed only five hits. Injuries and individual slumps offer some explanation, as Shohei Ohtani’s struggles at the plate during the postseason show. Still, they cannot entirely account for the glaring inability to turn opportunities into sustained pressure. Nor do they mean that championship pedigree has suddenly become irrelevant.
There is also a measure of unfinished business. The Brewers were swept by the Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, a result that underscored the chasm between a successful regular season and a championship run. They responded by winning a franchise-record 103 games in 2026 and earning another crack against the same opponents. The difference this time is not simply that they have played with greater urgency. They have shown that their regular-season success can withstand the demands of a series against vaunted competition. Their pitching has thrived, their hitters have delivered in crucial situations, and their collective discipline has allowed them to recover even under intense pressure. A 3-0 lead does not erase the lessons of last season, but it does demonstrate how much can change when disappointment spurs intense preparation.
The Dodgers are, to be sure, not finished until they lose a fourth game, and baseball history offers enough reminders that a commanding lead is not the same as a completed series. Which is to say the Brewers need to avoid treating success as a destination rather than a journey. One more win would send them to the World Series for the first time in more than four decades, but getting there requires the same patience and attention to detail that brought them to the brink. A dynasty was built by meeting those demands. Now, that same dynasty is scrambling for an answer against rivals who have learned to meet them just as well.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.