Brewers Push Dodgers to the Brink: Back-to-Back Homers Seal Game 3 and a 3-0 NLCS Lead

For six innings on Wednesday night, Blake Snell looked like the most unhittable pitcher on the planet. Nine strikeouts. Fourteen straight Dodgers retired. The two-time Cy Young winner had given up exactly one run — on the very first pitch of the game — and the Los Angeles crowd at Dodger Stadium was settling in for what felt like a classic October pitching duel.

Then the seventh inning happened. And by the time it was over, the Milwaukee Brewers had ripped the heart out of the two-time defending champions.

Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back home runs off Snell in the seventh, turning a 2-1 deficit into a lead Milwaukee would never give back, as the Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 in NLCS Game 3 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee now leads the National League Championship Series three games to none — one win away from the first World Series trip in franchise history as a National League club.

The Seventh Inning That Silenced Dodger Stadium

Let’s rewind, because the drama deserves it. The Dodgers had just taken their first real swing of momentum all series. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Will Smith doubled home two runs, and for the first time all night — really, for the first time all series — the 50,000-plus at Dodger Stadium believed. It was their latest lead of the series. Snell, cruising with 81 pitches, went back out for the seventh.

Then everything unraveled in about ten minutes.

Andrew Vaughn worked a grinding seven-pitch walk to open the frame and was lifted for pinch-runner Christian Yelich. Up stepped Bauers. What followed was an 11-pitch war of attrition — Bauers fouled off five pitches, including one long drive down the right-field line that stayed just foul. On pitch number eleven, Bauers finally straightened one out: a 412-foot rocket deep into the right-field pavilion. 3-2, Brewers. Most of Milwaukee’s dugout spilled onto the field to celebrate.

Snell, stunned, stayed in to face the left-handed Mitchell. He lasted two more pitches. Mitchell crushed a 428-foot shot to right-center — back-to-back homers, and Snell’s night was over. The Dodgers’ dugout went quiet. You could almost hear 50,000 people exhale at once.

Snell’s Masterpiece — Until It Wasn’t

What makes this loss so jarring for Los Angeles is how good Snell was before the collapse. Coming into the night, he had not allowed a single home run in 2026. That streak died on his very first pitch, when Jackson Chourio ambushed him for a leadoff homer. Snell responded like an ace: he retired 14 batters in a row, struck out nine, and looked completely in command through six innings.

But baseball has a cruel way of bookending nights like this. Snell’s first pitch of the game was a home run. His last pitch of the game — to Garrett Mitchell — was a home run. In between: six innings, four hits, four runs, and a loss that pushed the defending champions to the brink of elimination.

Milwaukee, true to its identity, kept adding on the old-fashioned way. In the eighth, Brice Turang reached on an infield single, moved up on William Contreras’ hit, and scored on a wild pitch by Justin Wrobleski. In the ninth, Joey Ortiz slapped a two-strike RBI single to make it 6-2. Small ball, big moment, same result.

Jake Bauers, October’s Unlikeliest Hero

Here’s the thing about Jake Bauers: he wasn’t supposed to be the story of this series. The 31-year-old veteran is a grinder, a role player, the kind of guy who does the quiet work. But this October, he has become the Dodgers’ personal nightmare.

Two nights earlier in Milwaukee, Bauers spent seven minutes and fifteen seconds in the batter’s box against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 — a 12-pitch walk that stands as the most pitches any batter has ever seen in a plate appearance against the Dodgers’ ace. Yamamoto never recovered, failing to finish the inning as the Brewers won 7-4. Brewers manager Pat Murphy said afterward that the at-bat flipped the whole game.

Wednesday was the sequel. Another marathon at-bat. Another Dodgers ace broken. This time, Bauers didn’t walk — he ended the debate with one swing. His go-ahead homer was his first of the postseason, and it may go down as the biggest hit in Brewers history if Milwaukee finishes this off.

What a 3-0 Lead Really Means

The numbers are brutal for Los Angeles. The Dodgers have trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven series exactly once before in franchise history — the 1966 World Series, when they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles. No team in baseball history has ever come back from 3-0 in the League Championship Series. The math is simple, and it’s ugly.

The story is even wilder in the other direction. Last October, these same two teams met in the NLCS, and the Dodgers eliminated Milwaukee in four games. The Brewers had never beaten Los Angeles in three previous postseason meetings. Now the 108-win Brewers are one victory from flipping that script completely — sweeping the two-time defending champions out of October.

And consider how it’s happened. The Brewers took the 2-1 stunner in the series opener behind pitching and patience. They outlasted Yamamoto in Game 2. Now they’ve gone into Dodger Stadium and beaten Snell at his own game. Every time Los Angeles has grabbed a lead this series — and Wednesday’s sixth-inning rally was their fourth — Milwaukee has answered in the very next half-inning.

Game 4 Tonight: What to Watch

The series doesn’t pause for anyone. Game 4 is Thursday night, back at Dodger Stadium, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. For Milwaukee, it’s a chance at a sweep and a date with the World Series. For Los Angeles, it’s win-or-go-home — a sentence the Dodgers haven’t faced in October in years.

The big question: does Dave Roberts have a pitching answer left? Snell and Yamamoto have both been beaten. The bullpen has been worked hard all series. Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s relief corps keeps slamming the door — closer Trevor Megill needed just four outs Wednesday, and even after Pete Crow-Armstrong took him deep, the Brewers’ pen held firm.

The other question is psychological. This Dodgers team has won the last two World Series. They’ve been here, done this, owned October. But they’ve never looked like this in October — outworked, outlasted, and out-homered by a team playing with house money and zero fear.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the final score of NLCS Game 3?
The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Who hit the back-to-back home runs for the Brewers?
Jake Bauers hit a go-ahead two-run homer (412 feet) and Garrett Mitchell followed with a solo shot (428 feet) off Blake Snell in the seventh inning, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.

What is the NLCS series score now?
Milwaukee leads the best-of-seven National League Championship Series 3-0. The Brewers need one more win to advance to the World Series; the Dodgers must win four straight to survive.

When is NLCS Game 4?
Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night (October 15) at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. If the Brewers win, the series is over; a Dodgers win forces a Game 5.

The Bottom Line

October baseball has a way of humbling even the mightiest teams, and right now it’s humbling the two-time defending champions in the most public way possible. The Brewers didn’t just beat the Dodgers in Game 3 — they beat Snell at his best, in his ballpark, minutes after Los Angeles had finally seized momentum. That’s not luck. That’s a better team playing better baseball.

One more win and Milwaukee is going to the World Series. One more loss and the Dodgers’ dynasty takes its hardest October hit in a decade. Tonight, everything is on the line — and if this series has taught us anything, it’s that you should never, ever count out the team in navy and yellow.