Tommy Edman hit a tie-breaking single off hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski in a two-run sixth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 on Thursday to take a 3-0 lead in their National League Championship Series (NLCS).
Los Angeles moved within one win of becoming the first defending champion to reach the World Series since the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies. No team has won consecutive titles since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees took three in a row.
Game 4 is Friday. The only one of the 41 teams that overcame a 3-0 postseason deficit was the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the Yankees, sparked by current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Shohei Ohtani tripled off Andy Ashby to start the bottom of the first and scored on Mookie Betts’ double to put the Dodgers ahead, but Jake Bauers tied the score with an RBI single in the second.
That was the only run allowed by Tyler Glasnow, who has combined with Ohtani, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to give Dodgers starters a 1.54 postseason ERA during an 8-1 postseason spurt.
Misiorowski replaced Ashby with two on and one out in the first, and struck out Edman and Teoscar Hernandez. The 23-year-old right-hander struck out a Brewers postseason rookie record nine.
Will Smith singled with one out on an slider in the middle of the strike zone and Freddie Freeman walked after falling behind 1-2 in the count. Edman, who had struck out twice against Misiorowski, lined a low slider into centre, and Smith scored for a 2-1 lead as Sal Frelick made a weak throw.
Abner Uribe relieved and struck out Hernandez, then made a wild pickoff throw past first as Freeman scored. It’s the second game in a row with an error by the Brewers closer.
Glasnow allowed three hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings while striking out eight, leaving to a standing ovation from the crowd of 51,251.
Alex Vesia followed Glasnow and got two outs for his second in of the playoffs.
Roki Sasaki pitched a perfect ninth for his third save of the postseason, finishing a four-hitter. Dodgers relievers allowed one hit of 3 1/3 innings.
Milwaukee, which swept the Dodgers 6-0 during the regular season, has lost its last 10 postseason road games dating to 2018. The Brewers have three runs and nine hits in the series, and dating to the Division Series finale the Dodgers are the first team to allow no runs or one run and four hits or fewer in four straight postseason games.
Up next, Ohtani makes his second postseason start after the right-hander struck out nine over six innings against Philadelphia in the NL Division Series.
The two-way star was one for four with two strikeouts and is hitting .158 with one homer and six RBIs in nine postseason game. Milwaukee has not announced a starter.
