LOS ANGELES — In much of the country, the leaves are turning. In California, it might be the Dodgers’ bullpen that has changed colors – from flashing red to cautionary yellow.
With Tyler Glasnow pulled in the sixth inning, the Dodgers were left counting outs on trembling hands. They got 10 of them from four relievers who made a two-run lead stand up for a 3-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Thursday afternoon.
The Dodgers (winners of eight of nine games this postseason) will go for a sweep of the Brewers on Friday night with Shohei Ohtani scheduled to start Game 4.
Game 3’s mid-afternoon start time suited TV but made things even more difficult for hitters as shadows passed in front of the plate, eventually to the outfield. Eleven of 19 batters struck out against Tyler Glasnow and hard-throwing Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski in the third, fourth and fifth innings with just one baserunner (on a walk), leaving the game locked in a 1-1 tie until the Dodgers put something together in the sixth.
Will Smith singled with one out and Freddie Freeman followed with a walk. That was it for Misiorowski. Brewers manager Pat Murphy called on one of his high-leverage relievers to put out the fire.
Abner Uribe couldn’t do it. He gave up an RBI single to Tommy Edman for the go-ahead run, Freeman pushing the envelope and advancing from first base to third successfully. That proved critical when Uribe made a wild pickoff attempt on Edman at first, allowing Freeman to trot home with a second run.
Alex Vesia had replaced Glasnow after a two-out walk in the top of the sixth pushed his pitch count to 99. Vesia got Sal Frelick to end that inning but gave up a leadoff double to Caleb Durbin to start the seventh. He got Jake Bauers to fly out. Blake Treinen got the next two outs.
After Anthony Banda pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, Roki Sasaki came on for the ninth.
Mookie Betts made a Gold Glove finalist-worthy play for the first out – ranging into the hole to make a backhand play then a jump throw to first. A pop out and a strikeout settled things with no drama.
Glasnow had some big footsteps to try and follow after Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Games 1 and 2. He retired the first two Brewers to start the game but walked William Contreras and Christian Yelich beat out an infield single.
That put a runner on second base against a Dodgers starter for the first time in the NLCS. Glasnow defused that by getting Andrew Vaughn to ground into a force out.
After taking the batting practice heard ’round the world on Wednesday, Shohei Ohtani led off Game 3 with a one-handed swing at a 1-and-2 slider from Brewers ‘opener’ Aaron Ashby. That swing dumped a liner down the right field line and into the corner. Ohtani rolled into third with a triple then scored when Mookie Betts shot a double into right-center field.
Ashby got a called third strike on Will Smith but walked Freeman. That was it for him and Misiorowski came in to carry the ‘bulk.’
He struck out the next two batters to strand Betts and Freeman then charged through the Dodgers’ lineup for five innings with a fastball averaging 100.6 mph and a slider getting eight of his 15 swings-and-misses.
Glasnow couldn’t hold the lead. With one out in the second, Caleb Durbin sent a drive into left field that Kiké Hernandez turned into a triple when his diving attempt came up short. Durbin scored when Bauers a single through the middle of a drawn-in infield.
Bauers stole second and went to third on an errant pickoff attempt by Glasnow. But third baseman Max Muncy saved a run when he handled Joey Ortiz’s ground ball to his left, popping up and throwing Bauers out at home.
Glasnow settled in from there, retiring 12 of 13 after Ortiz’s grounder (including striking out six of seven batters at one point). His pitch count crept up, though, and Manager Dave Roberts pulled him after a two-out walk in the sixth inning pushed it to 99, causing 51,251 sets of fingers to cross.
More to come on this story.