LOS ANGELES -- Just when Dodger Stadium started to believe again. Just when Will Smith’s two-run double had gotten Los Angeles off the mat. Just when the two-time defending champions were starting to look the part.
There was Jake Bauers, at the plate again, fouling off one pitch after another, refusing to die.
The Brewers really might do this. They’re now just one win away from advancing to their first World Series in 44 years, after beating the Dodgers, 6-2, in Game 3 on Wednesday night. And if they do, the defining image from this 2026 National League Championship Series is going to be Bauers at the plate -- embodying his team and his organization -- never, ever giving in.
Bauers, who turned in an epic 12-pitch battle with Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, saw 11 pitches from Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell in the top of the seventh inning on Wednesday. He fouled off the eighth, ninth and 10th of them. The 11th was a fastball that caught too much plate. Bauers turned on it and sent it to the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium for a two-run homer. His dugout erupted -- just about the only noise in an utterly stunned ballpark.
The Brewers had a lead, 3-2, and one batter later, Garrett Mitchell doubled it, with homer of his own. Cue the same scene. The Brewers were on their way to a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven NLCS.
The Dodgers’ bid for a third straight World Series title is fading. By Thursday night, it might be fully extinguished.
In MLB history, 42 teams have fallen behind, 3-0, in a best-of-seven postseason series. Thirty-two of them have gone down quietly, via sweep. Only two have ever managed to even force a Game 7 after trailing 3-0. The Astros won Games 4, 5 and 6 vs. the Rays in the 2020 ALCS but ended up losing Game 7. Only the 2004 Red Sox, in the ALCS against the Yankees, have come all the way back to win.
The Dodgers will need that level of miracle.