![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792055905_933_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe quiet crowd had come alive. The quiet pitcher had become unhittable. The quiet catcher had loudly blasted a ball that sent Chavez Ravine into tremors.<\/p>\n
In the sixth inning Wednesday night, with their pursuit of history on the line against those pesky Milwaukee Brewers, the somnolent Dodgers had finally come to life.<\/p>\n
Moments later, they were dead again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Brewers\u2019 Garrett Mitchell yells after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning off Blake Snell in Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
And they will remain so until at least next spring.<\/p>\n
After an inspiring, two-run rally authored by a bases-loaded double from Will Smith<\/a>, Dodgers starter Blake Snell allowed back-to-back homers to Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell in the seventh and seemingly closed out the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 season in a 6-2 loss in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not over, but it is. The Dodgers aren\u2019t done, but they\u2019re so done.<\/p>\n The chase for a third consecutive World Series championship is historically and essentially and practically kaput. Their pursuit of a three-peat<\/a> has been smothered by the Brewers\u2019 own version of a three-peat, and nearly all hope is lost.<\/p>\n The Dodgers now trail the Brewers three games to none in this best-of-seven series, a virtually impossible mountain to scale, achieved only once in major-league history.<\/p>\n Yes, Dave Roberts<\/a> stole the base that spurred the Boston Red Sox to work out of a similar hole against the New York Yankees in 2004, but he\u2019s no longer on the field and any of that inspiration has long since vanished.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if some of those guys even know I played,\u201d said Roberts before the game.<\/p>\n They could have used some of his fire Wednesday in a game played against a background of apathetic embarrassment.<\/p>\n Namely, it wasn\u2019t a sellout. How can an NLCS game in the most perpetually crowded baseball stadium in America not sell out?<\/p>\n The huge swaths of empty seats were perhaps a sign that, after watching their team slog through two losses in Milwaukee, Dodger nation had already given up. The 50,708 fans who did show up made lots of noise, but it was too late to reverse the optics of a team abandoned.<\/p>\n Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez reacts after taking a strike in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n (Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, there were several standing ovations given to injured star Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, whom the Dodgers considered benching before allowing him<\/a> to talk his way into staying in the lineup. Also not surprisingly, Ohtani did little to reward his devotees. He lined out, he was hit by a pitch, he drew a walk to help fuel the Dodgers\u2019 sixth-inning rally and he singled after the Brewers had taken a three-run lead. No heroics. No chance.<\/p>\n The injury-plagued season of Ohtani will end with the Dodgers surely realizing that they should have taken control of his situation instead of empowering him to dictate the terms of his participation. They shouldn\u2019t have let him keep playing hurt, but they did because they didn\u2019t want to upset him, and it was the team that ended up paying the price.<\/p>\n All this negativity swirling around Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night and, to think, the Dodgers were just moments from saving themselves.<\/p>\n Snell was brilliant for six innings, giving up just a leadoff home run to Jackson Chourio.<\/p>\n The Dodgers then set him up for a victory by taking advantage of a terrible decision by Brewers manager Pat Murphy.<\/p>\n Entering the sixth inning, Brewers starter Robert Gasser had given up just three singles in five shutout innings and had thrown just 72 pitches. Yet he was stunningly pulled by Murphy in favor of heavily used Abner Uribe.<\/p>\n Sure enough, Uribe threw eight balls in his next nine pitches to walk Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez and Kyle Tucker. After Max Muncy struck out, Ohtani drew a five-pitch walk in one of his best plate appearances this month.<\/p>\n Up stepped Smith, who entered the game with one hit in his previous 25 postseason plate appearances. But this night was going to be different, as it was hours after Smith\u2019s wife, Cara, announced the birth of their third child.<\/p>\n Oh baby! Dad powered a two-run double off the left-center field fence to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n Snell took the mound in the seventh having retired the previous 14 Brewers and looking strong. But he had not pitched this deep all season. And the Chourio home run was the first he had allowed this season.<\/p>\n Should Roberts have pulled him? You decide. Snell opened the seventh by walking Andrew Vaughn and losing an 11-pitch duel to Bauers, who won the battle with a two-run homer. Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell took Snell deep to almost exactly the same right-center field spot to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead they never lost.<\/p>\n Snell was gone, but it was too late and too much, and in the end, it was Roberts taking the heat for a couple of questionable moves in a postseason filled with them.<\/p>\n First, late in that sixth-inning rally, with runners on second and third and one out, why did Roberts initially bat Josue De Paula and then burn him for the rest of the game by replacing him with Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez, who struck out?<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, all the experience that Kik\u00e9\u2019s had, I feel very confident with Kik\u00e9 taking a bat with a guy on second and third, infield in,\u201d said Roberts. <\/p>\n Second, in the seventh, should he have stuck with Snell?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they were seeing him well,\u201d said Roberts, adding, \u201cI felt good with where Blake\u2019s stuff was at.\u201d<\/p>\n Third, could he have avoided the late-inning mess by playing the kind of small ball that has worked so well for the Brewers? Twice in the first five innings Tommy Edman, one of the team\u2019s best bunters, came to the plate with a runner on first and none out. Yet neither time he bunted, flying out to center field on both occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt I wanted to give Tommy an opportunity to drive in a run,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cThere\u2019s certain ways, obviously when you look back, would it have changed? I can\u2019t tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n The weary and distracted Dodgers never again showed much energy on a night when Dodger Stadium did its best.<\/p>\n There was Keith Williams Jr. hitting all the high notes \u2014 and even higher \u2014 during his usual incredible national anthem.<\/p>\n Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers hits a two-run home run during the seventh inning of Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n There was past Brewers playoff nemesis Chris Taylor chanting, \u201cIt\u2019s time for Dodger baseball!\u201d<\/p>\n Late in the game, there was even unofficial Dodger emcee Ice Cube on the video board saying, \u201cWe ain\u2019t backing down to no one.\u201d<\/p>\n The hardest part of all this is that Cube is wrong. The Milwaukee Brewers are a good team but make no mistake.<\/p>\n Blessed with an opportunity to step up and make history, the Dodgers backed down.<\/p>\n Soon to be knocked out.<\/p>\n ![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792055906_260_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Brewers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792055907_547_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792055910_192_hqdefault.jpg\")
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