The Los Angeles Dodgers took a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship with their 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night. The outcome means the Dodgers are just one win away from claiming the pennant for a second straight year and taking another step toward becoming the first repeat World Series champions since the 1999-2000 New York Yankees.
The Dodgers struck first when Shohei Ohtani tripled and then soon after was driven home by a Mookie Betts single. The Brewers tied the score in the top of the second, and that 1-1 score held until the Dodgers finally broke through against reliever Jacob Misiorowski, who had been dominant up until that point. Will Smith started things with a one-out single, and then following a mound visit Freddie Freeman worked a six-pitch walk. Tommy Edman followed with an RBI single to center that ended Misiorowski's night. One out later, reliever Abner Uribe committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt that allowed Freeman to score and push it to 3-1.
Across the way, Tyler Glasnow continued the series-long trend of Dodgers starting pitchers suffocating the Milwaukee lineup. After Glasnow worked 5 ⅔ innings in Game 3 and allowed only that second-inning run, Dodger starters through the first three games of this series have allowed two runs in 22 ⅔ innings with just seven hits allowed and 25 strikeouts against four walks. Following Glasnow's exit, the extremely well-rested but flawed L.A. bullpen turned in 3 ⅓ scoreless frames to put the Brewers on the brink of elimination.
Compounding the miseries for Milwaukee is that star young outfielder Jackson Chourio exited the game mid-plate appearance in the seventh inning with an apparent leg injury.
Now for some takeaways from Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.
Misiorowski was dominant until the sixth
For almost his entire outing during Game 3, the 23-year-old rookie right-hander gave the Brewers exactly what they needed. Opener Aaron Ashby permitted that first inning, but the Miz came on and silenced the Dodger bats in overwhelming fashion. Until that Will Smith sharp single that marked the end of Misiowrowski's effectiveness, he'd struck out nine batters in five innings of work against no walks and only one hit -- an infield single. Along the way, he notched 15 whiffs on 33 swings. He averaged triple digits with his fastball, but he got the most whiffs with his slider, which topped 96 mph (!) on a couple of occasions. Here's one of them:
Brewers manager Pat Murphy, however, was perhaps a batter too slow with his hook, as Edman came through with the clutch go-ahead run at Misiorowski's expense.
The Milwaukee offense keeps on struggling
Other than Caleb Durbin -- who doubled, tripled, and drew a walk -- the Brewer bats were once again kept largely silent in Game 3. That's very much in keeping with recent history. Their utterly helpless numbers against Dodger starters in this series are noted above, but it's deeper than that. Overall in this series, they're now batting .103/.168/.184 as a team, and in related matters they've scored a total of just three runs in as many games. That's compared to the regular season, when they ranked third in the majors in runs scored, behind just the Yankees and Dodgers.
Going back to the final three games of their NLDS win over the Chicago Cubs, the Brewers have scored a total of just nine runs in their last six games.
Mookie made a clutch highlight play
Mookie Betts, the future Hall of Famer, has famously become a shortstop in the latter half of his career. After a shaky introduction to the position last year, he's emerged as a defensive force this season -- indeed, he's quite deservingly a Gold Glove finalist in the National League.
That brings us to the ninth inning of Game 3. If Mookie doesn't make a ranging stop and Derek Jeter-grade jump throw on a 102.1 mph grounder off the bat of Andrew Vaughn, then the Brewers would've had the potential tying run at the plate with no outs. The former Gold Glove right fielder, however, was on the case:
To repeat: Future Hall of Famer.
The Brewers are facing steep odds
Across all of MLB postseason history, 41 teams -- not counting this year's Brewers -- have been down 0-3 in a best-of-seven series. Of those, only one, the 2004 Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, came back to win the series in question. Stated another way, history suggests there's a 97.6% chance the Brewers are going to lose this series. That's not surprising when you consider the simple math of it: Milwaukee has to win four games before the Dodgers win one.
The Brewers' attempt at a miracle begins -- or perhaps ends -- with Game 4 on Friday night back in L.A. First pitch is scheduled for 8:38 p.m. ET. Ohtani will be on the mound for the Dodgers.
