Brewers Stun Dodgers With Back-To-Back Homers In 7th Inning And Take 3-0 Lead In NLCS With 6-2 win
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back homers off Blake Snell to regain the lead in the seventh inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday to take a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers had just taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth before getting stunned. The loss pushed the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination. They had only trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series once previously in franchise history, getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.
Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Coming into the seventh, Snell had retired 14 in a row. The first pitch of the game thrown by the two-time Cy Young Award winner was a home run by Jackson Chourio, and his last pitch was Mitchell’s solo shot.
Andrew Vaughn drew a seven-pitch walk to open the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Bauers followed with a 412-foot shot to right field on the 11th pitch of the at-bat for a 3-2 lead as most of Milwaukee’s dugout came onto the field to celebrate. Mitchell was next and his drive traveled 428 feet to right-center, chasing Snell.
Snell gave up four runs and four hits in six innings, struck out nine and walked two.
The Brewers are on the verge of sweeping the Dodgers in what would be a reversal of last year’s NLCS, when the Dodgers eliminated Milwaukee in four games. The Brewers have never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series.
The Brewers extended the lead to 5-2 on Justin Wrobleski’s wild pitch that scored Brice Turang, who reached on an infield single to third and moved up on William Contreras’ single in the eighth. They added another run on Joey Ortiz’s two-strike RBI single in the ninth.
The offensively starved Dodgers took their first lead, 2-1, on Will Smith’s two-run double off reliever Abner Uribe in the sixth.
Uribe followed rookie starter Robert Gasser and he loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who came in hitting .043, doubled to left-center for his first hit of the NLCS.
DL Hall took over from Uribe, allowing one hit and striking out two before turning it over to Trevor Megill in the eighth.
The Dodgers played from behind again after Snell’s leadoff homer to Chourio as fans were still heading to their seats.
After that, Mitchell walked and Cooper Pratt singled in the second before Snell retired 14 in a row -- six on strikeouts -- before getting hammered in the seventh.
The Dodgers had runners on base in all but three innings, but couldn’t get enough across. They have yet to homer in the NLCS.
Ohtani was 1 for 2 with a walk hitting sixth in the order, the lowest he’s batted since joining the Dodgers three years ago.