Brewers Hit Back-to-Back Homers—Now the Dodgers Need a Miracle to Save Their Three-Peat

The Los Angeles Dodgers were six outs from turning the National League Championship Series back into a contest. Then the Milwaukee Brewers hit two home runs in two batters—and pushed the two-time defending champions to the edge of elimination.

Jake Bauers won an 11-pitch battle against Blake Snell with a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning Wednesday night. Garrett Mitchell followed with another homer, powering Milwaukee to a 6–2 victory and a commanding 3–0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS.

One exhausting at-bat changed the game

Milwaukee entered the seventh trailing 2–1 after Will Smith’s two-run double had finally brought Dodger Stadium to life. Snell walked Andrew Vaughn to begin the inning, then tried to put away Bauers.

Bauers kept extending the at-bat. He fouled off three consecutive pitches before driving Snell’s 11th offering into the right-field seats. The swing turned a one-run deficit into a 3–2 Brewers lead.

Two pitches later, Mitchell sent another ball over the wall. The back-to-back homers ended Snell’s night and transformed a tense game into the Brewers’ fifth comeback victory of the postseason.

Reuters reported that Snell allowed four runs on four hits in six-plus innings, striking out nine. Milwaukee later added insurance runs on a wild pitch in the eighth and Joey Ortiz’s RBI single in the ninth.

Milwaukee announced itself on the first pitch

The Brewers did not wait for the seventh to make a statement. Jackson Chourio launched Snell’s first pitch of the game into the seats, becoming only the sixth hitter since complete pitch tracking began in 1988 to homer on the first pitch of a postseason game.

Rookie left-hander Robert Gasser protected that early lead by holding Los Angeles scoreless over five innings and allowing three hits. The Dodgers put their leadoff hitter aboard in four of the first six innings but repeatedly failed to convert those opportunities.

Los Angeles finally broke through in the sixth. Brewers reliever Abner Uribe walked three of four batters, and Smith doubled off the wall to give the Dodgers a 2–1 advantage. Milwaukee’s bullpen prevented any further damage, setting up the immediate seventh-inning response.

The Dodgers’ stars could not create enough offense

Manager Dave Roberts dropped Shohei Ohtani to sixth in the batting order for the first time during his Dodgers tenure as the superstar worked through a postseason slump. Ohtani went 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch, but Los Angeles finished with only five hits after collecting three in Game 2.

The Dodgers have struggled especially with runners in scoring position. MLB’s Game 3 analysis reported that Los Angeles was 3-for-32 in those situations this postseason after Smith’s double.

That lack of timely production has put a historically expensive and powerful roster in a nearly impossible position. Los Angeles must now win four consecutive games to keep its bid for a third straight World Series championship alive.

History says the series is nearly over

Teams taking a 3–0 lead in a best-of-seven postseason series have advanced 41 of 42 times, according to MLB. Thirty-two of those series ended in sweeps. Only the 2004 Boston Red Sox completed a comeback from 3–0 down—and Roberts was a key player on that team.

Milwaukee has not reached the World Series since 1982, when the franchise still played in the American League. One more victory would end that 44-year absence. It could also create a striking reversal: the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the 2025 NLCS on their way to a second consecutive championship.

MLB’s Brewers coverage notes that no team has ever been swept from the playoffs and then swept the same opponent in the following postseason. Milwaukee can become the first with a Game 4 victory.

What comes next

Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. Milwaukee is expected to use its bullpen, while Los Angeles turns to Tyler Glasnow with its season on the line.

The Brewers have not clinched anything yet, but they have taken away nearly all of the Dodgers’ margin for error. After Bauers survived 11 pitches and Mitchell punished the next mistake, Los Angeles now needs the rarest comeback in baseball history to save its three-peat.