Brewers stun Dodgers to take 3-0 lead

‘SUPER SICK’: Two-time Cy Young winner Snell, who had not given up a home run in 46-1/3 innings prior to Game 3, gave up solo homers on his first and last pitches

Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell on Wednesday night launched back-to-back homers off Blake Snell as Milwaukee regained the lead in the seventh inning and the Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-2 to build a 3-0 cushion in the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

Jackson Chourio also went deep on the first pitch of the game to help the Brewers close within one win of their first National League pennant.

Milwaukee was in the American League when the franchise reached its only World Series, a seven-game loss to the St Louis Cardinals in 1982.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ Jake Bauers, left, connects for a two-run home run off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Blake Snell, front, during Game 3 of their National League Championship Series in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Photo: AP

“Job’s not finished yet,” Mitchell said.

Brewers could become the first major league club to complete a post-season sweep after getting swept by that same opponent in the previous post-season.

Los Angeles took all four games against Milwaukee in the NLCS last year.

On Wednesday, the Dodgers had just gone ahead 2-1 in the sixth before getting stunned. The loss pushed the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination.

“All three games we’ve played so far, and hopefully that continues, where just every time they score, we come back and score,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s not easy to do in baseball.”

It was the fifth comeback victory in seven games this post-season for the Brewers, who have never beaten Los Angeles in three previous playoff series.

The only other time the Dodgers trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven post-season series, they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.

“We’ve won four in a row a number of times this year,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve got to win tomorrow. That’s our only focus.”

The only team in major league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven post-season series was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who got a gutsy stolen base from Roberts to spark their comeback against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Roberts was asked if he might reminisce of what became known as “The Steal” to inspire his Dodgers.

“I don’t think so. I think they’ve seen the documentary. They know it can happen,” he said.

Coming into the seventh, Snell had retired 14 batters in a row. The first pitch of the game thrown by the two-time Cy Young Award winner was hit for a home run by 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 125.58m drive to right field on the 11th pitch of the at-bat for a 3-2 lead as most of the players in Milwaukee’s dugout came onto the field to celebrate.

“I was looking for a fastball, and I didn’t want to miss it,” said Bauers, who had a team-leading 26 of Milwaukee’s 154 regular-season homers.

It was his latest relentless plate appearance after drawing a 12-pitch walk from Yoshinobu Yamamoto that helped the Brewers go ahead early in Game 2.

“I think what changed for me this year was I stopped caring about results,” Bauers said. “I started caring about competing. I started caring about being in the moment and getting out of my own way.”

Watching Bauers work over Snell was “super sick,” Mitchell said.

Then it was his turn.

Mitchell’s drive traveled 130.5m to right-center. That chased Snell, who had not given up a home run in 46-1/3 innings this year entering the game.

It was the first time in his career he served up back-to-back homers to left-handed hitters and only the second time he gave up multiple long balls to left-handed batters in one game.

Bauers and Mitchell became just the third pair of left-handed hitters with consecutive post-season home runs off the same left-handed pitcher. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper did it for the Philadelphia Phillies against Atlanta Braves’ reliever Dylan Lee in their Wild Card Series this year, and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig connected for the New York Yankees off the Cardinals’ Bill Sherdel in the 1928 World Series.