Jake Bauers HR Puts Brewers Up 3-0 on Dodgers

Jake Bauers turned one at-bat into a 3-0 NLCS lead. The Milwaukee Brewers first baseman fouled off five pitches from Blake Snell, then crushed the 11th pitch of the at-bat 412 feet to right field for a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning, and Milwaukee beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

The Brewers are now one win from their first World Series trip in 44 years, and the two-time defending champions are staring at a sweep.

The at-bat that flipped Game 3

Snell had been cruising. After Jackson Chourio took his first pitch of the night out of the park, the two-time Cy Young winner retired 14 straight Brewers. Andrew Vaughn broke the spell with a seven-pitch walk to open the seventh, and Christian Yelich came in to pinch-run.

Then Bauers went to work. He pulled a hard liner on a hanging slider just foul to right, the scariest swing of the at-bat. Snell came back with a 97.8 mph fastball in the same spot, and Bauers did not miss it twice. Garrett Mitchell followed two pitches later with a 428-foot solo shot to right-center, and Snell's night was over.

It was deja vu for Bauers. In Game 2 he worked a 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto to load the bases before Yelich's go-ahead single. "We play for each other," Bauers said. "When you have 26 guys that are bought into that and believe that and show up every day, completely selfless, playing for each other, it's a special thing to be a part of."

Mitchell loved the view from the on-deck circle. "Super sick," he said. "He's trying to move the guy over, and (he) put an incredible swing on that. For me being able to watch that on deck was awesome."

Chourio history and a bullpen scare

Chourio's leadoff blast was his sixth career postseason homer, the most in MLB history by a player before turning 23. It moved him past Juan Soto and Kyle Schwarber.

The Dodgers did grab their first lead of the night. Robert Gasser threw five scoreless innings, but reliever Abner Uribe walked Teoscar Hernandez, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani to load the bases in the sixth. Will Smith, hitting .043 coming in, doubled to left-center for two runs and a 2-1 Dodgers edge. DL Hall got out of the jam, and Trevor Megill closed it with a four-out save.

Milwaukee added insurance in the eighth when Brice Turang scored on a Justin Wrobleski wild pitch, and Joey Ortiz drove in another run with a two-strike single in the ninth.

Game 4 at Dodger Stadium

Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles hands the ball to Tyler Glasnow, while Milwaukee plans a bullpen game. The Dodgers have trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven series only once before, when the Baltimore Orioles swept them in the 1966 World Series. The Brewers have never beaten the Dodgers in three previous postseason series, and Los Angeles swept them out of last year's NLCS.

Dave Roberts knows the comeback math better than anyone. His stolen base sparked the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the only team in 42 previous tries to escape an 0-3 hole and win a best-of-seven series. "Our guys know how good (the Brewers) are. Our guys know what we're up against," Roberts said. "But that doesn't change anything."

Brewers fans have waited since 1982 for this. One more win, and Bauers' 11-pitch swing becomes the at-bat Milwaukee talks about for a generation.