Brewers stun Dodgers with
back-to-back homers in 7th inning and ride 6-2 win to 3-0 lead in NLCS
[October 15, 2026]
By BETH HARRIS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers hit the second-fewest home
runs in baseball during the regular season, even as they topped the
majors with 103 wins.
Maybe they were saving their biggest swings for the Los Angeles
Dodgers.
Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell launched back-to-back homers off
Blake Snell in the seventh inning, and the Brewers beat the Dodgers
6-2 on Wednesday to build a 3-0 cushion in the National League
Championship Series.
Jackson Chourio also went deep on the first pitch of the game to
help the Brewers close within one win of their first NL 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.
“Job’s not finished yet,” Mitchell said.
Game 4 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where the Brewers can become
the first major league club to complete a postseason sweep after
getting swept by that same opponent in the previous postseason.
Los Angeles took all four games against Milwaukee in the NLCS last
year.
The Dodgers had just gone ahead 2-1 in the sixth inning before
getting stunned by the Brewers in their three-run seventh. 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,” Milwaukee
manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s not easy to do in baseball.”
It was the fifth comeback victory in seven postseason games 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
postseason series, they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the
1966 World Series.
The lone team in big league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit
to win a best-of-seven postseason series was the Boston Red Sox in
the 2004 AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
“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.”
Coming into the seventh, Snell had retired 14 batters in a row. But
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 seventh and was
replaced by pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Bauers followed with a
412-foot drive to right field on the 11th pitch of his 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, too, after Bauers
drew 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.
[to top of second column] |
Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell yells towards his
dugout after hitting a solo home run during the seventh inning of
Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the
Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wednesday, Oct. 14,
2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
And then it was his turn.
Mitchell's drive traveled 428 feet to right-center. That chased
Snell, who hadn't 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 longballs to left-handed batters in one game.
Bauers and Mitchell became just the third pair of left-handed
hitters with consecutive postseason home runs off the same
left-handed pitcher. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper did it for
Philadelphia against Atlanta reliever Dylan Lee in an NL Wild Card
Series this year, and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig connected for the New
York Yankees off Bill Sherdel of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928
World Series.
Milwaukee has five homers in the NLCS and eight this postseason.
Snell gave up four runs and four hits in six-plus innings. He struck
out nine and walked two.
The Brewers extended their lead to 5-2 in the eighth on Justin
Wrobleski's wild pitch that scored Brice Turang, who reached on an
infield single and advanced to third on William Contreras' single.
They added another run on Joey Ortiz's two-strike RBI single in the
ninth.
The offensively starved Dodgers took a 2-1 lead on Will Smith's
two-run double off reliever Abner Uribe in the sixth.
After rookie starter Robert Gasser pitched five shutout innings,
Uribe entered and loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernández,
Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who was 1 for 25 in the
playoffs, doubled off the left-center fence with one out for his
first hit of the NLCS.
DL Hall took over from Uribe and stranded runners at second and
third by striking out pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández and Tommy Edman.
Hall allowed one hit in 2 1/3 scoreless innings to improve to 3-0 in
these playoffs. Trevor Megill got four outs for his second save of
the series and fourth this postseason.
The Dodgers played from behind again after the 22-year-old Chourio
connected for his third career leadoff homer in the postseason 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 and
are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position this postseason.
Ohtani was 1 for 2 with a walk while hitting sixth in the order, the
lowest he's batted since joining the Dodgers three years ago.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
