LOS ANGELES — Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning as the visiting Milwaukee Brewers rallied to take a commanding lead in the National League Championship Series with a 6-2 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
Rookie left-hander Robert Gasser gave up three hits over five scoreless innings as the Brewers built a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS.
Milwaukee is one victory away from the franchise’s second World Series visit. The Brewers made their lone Fall Classic appearance in 1982 as an American League team, losing in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jackson Chourio led off the game with a first-pitch homer off Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell as Milwaukee showed its power capabilities after finishing last in the NL in homers during the regular season with 154.
Will Smith hit a two-run double for the Dodgers, who won the last two World Series titles. Los Angeles is trying to become the first NL club to win three consecutive Fall Classic championships.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts moved Shohei Ohtani to sixth in the batting order with the superstar in a postseason slump. Ohtani went 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. The Dodgers’ offense was held to five hits in Game 3 after collecting three in Game 2.
Snell appeared to recover from Chourio’s ambush home run to open the game before he was rocked by consecutive home runs with no outs in the seventh inning. Snell allowed four runs on four hits over six-plus innings with two walks and nine strikeouts.
Trailing 1-0 from the jump, the Dodgers managed to put their leadoff batter on base in four of the first six innings before finally breaking through.
Gasser was replaced by right-hander Abner Uribe to open the sixth, and the reliever walked three of the first four batters he faced to load the bases, including a walk to Ohtani. Smith delivered a double off the wall in left-center for a 2-1 lead after opening the postseason in a 1-for-25 downturn.
Los Angeles failed to add onto the lead in the inning against left-hander DL Hall (3-0) when Enrique Hernandez and Tommy Edman struck out to end the threat.
Milwaukee responded immediately when Andrew Vaughn walked to open the seventh and Bauers hit a two-run homer to right on the 11th pitch of his at-bat for a 3-2 lead. Two pitches later, Mitchell went over the wall in right-center for a 4-2 advantage to end Snell’s outing.
The Brewers added to their lead in the eighth when Brice Turang scored on a Justin Wrobleski wild pitch.
Hall threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Brewers closer Trevor Megill got the last four outs, striking out the final two batters, for his fourth save of the postseason.