The Brewers are going to finish this. Milwaukee leads the NLCS three games to none after beating the Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday night, and barring the kind of collapse that's happened exactly once in the history of this sport, they're headed to their first World Series since 1982.
The reason the Dodgers are staring at elimination is their bats have gone cold at the worst possible time. The back-to-back champions have yet to homer in this series and are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position this postseason. This is a middle of the order that keeps putting men on and leaving them there, game after game. In Game 3 the Dodgers had runners on in all but three innings and couldn't push enough across. You can only strand so many ghosts before the scoreboard notices.
Blake Snell was dealing. He retired 14 in a row, struck out nine, and looked like the pitcher Los Angeles paid for. Then the seventh inning happened. Andrew Vaughn drew a seven-pitch walk, Christian Yelich came in to run, and Jake Bauers fouled off pitch after pitch before launching a 412-foot shot to right on the 11th offering of the at-bat. Garrett Mitchell followed him over the fence on the very next swing, back-to-back homers that sent the Dodgers' dugout quiet. Snell's final line was four runs on four hits over six innings.
The Brewers had never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series. Los Angeles bounced them in four games in last year's NLCS. Milwaukee has spent its October history getting walked over by exactly this franchise, and now it's doing the walking. Jackson Chourio, all of 22, opened Game 3 with a leadoff homer while people were still finding their seats. This team has already piled up comeback wins this month and plays like it expects to win every one.
The Dodgers do have one card left. They get Tyler Glasnow and a fully rested bullpen for Game 4, with Edwin Diaz not having thrown a pitch in the series yet, while Milwaukee cobbles together a bullpen day. A win-or-go-home game with your ace against a team's relievers is the spot where a series can turn. No team has ever blown a 3-0 lead except the 2004 Yankees, which means it can be done.
It won't be done here. A comeback from 0-3 needs a lineup that can suddenly produce, and the one thing the Dodgers have proven this postseason is theirs can't. You don't flip a switch and start homering when you haven't done it once in three games. Glasnow can keep it close. Someone still has to drive in the runs, and Los Angeles has been failing at that job for weeks.
Milwaukee's the better team right now, one win from the World Series. The Dodgers aren't owed a hug on the way out.
