{"id":219988,"date":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219988\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","slug":"dodgers-vs-brewers-how-dave-roberts-sparked-mlbs-only-3-0-comeback-21-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219988\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers vs. Brewers: How Dave Roberts sparked MLB’s only 3-0 comeback 21 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reigning World Series champion Dodgers<\/a> are one win away from returning to the Fall Classic. The Dodgers again beat the MLB-best Brewers<\/a> in Game 3 of the NLCS on Thursday night (LA 3, MIL 1<\/a>), giving them a comfortable 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Los Angeles is poised to become the first reigning champ to return to the World Series since the 2008-09 Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“That team is pretty good. So are we. We haven’t shown our best foot,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after the Game 3 loss. “Like I said, if you would have told me the Dodgers would score 10 runs in three games, what would be the score? If you said 2-1 us, or 1-2 them, you wouldn’t say 0-3.”<\/p>\n

Historically, teams that have taken a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven have won 40 of 41 series, with 31 sweeps. The one comeback was, of course, the Red Sox<\/a> over the Yankees<\/a> in the 2004 ALCS. New York bludgeoned the Red Sox 19-8 in their Game 3 win, then Boston did not lose again the rest of the postseason en route to their first World Series title since 1918.<\/p>\n

If the Brewers are going to become the second team to mount a 3-0 series comeback, they can look to the Dodgers’ dugout for inspiration. On this date in 2004, current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stole a key base against Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 4, then scored the game-tying run. Boston won Game 4 in 12 innings.<\/p>\n

Here is the Roberts’ steal and Boston’s ninth inning comeback in Game 4:<\/p>\n

“Even with Mo on the mound, and as bleak as things looked, we felt as if we were still in the game,” Roberts told MLB.com in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the Brewers to mount a 3-0 comeback (or even just force a Game 5), they have to hit, first and foremost. Milwaukee have scored exactly one run in each game and they have nine hits total in the NLCS. They are slugging — slugging — .180 as a team. The Brewers have pitched well in the NLCS. The offense has been a total no-show.<\/p>\n

A comeback will take scoring runs (duh) and likely a signature moment, like Roberts’ steal. It doesn’t have to be a stolen base. Maybe it’s a pitcher getting a key strikeout, or a big hit, or a big defensive play. There are lots of ways to have a signature moment in this sport. On this day in 2004, Roberts did it with his legs. Will a Brewers find a way to do it Friday night?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning World Series champion Dodgers are one win away from returning to the Fall Classic. The Dodgers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,487,493,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-219988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}