LOS ANGELES -- In Game 2 of the NLCS, a 12-pitch walk drawn by the Milwaukee Brewers' Jake Bauers was one of the spotlight moments of a series quickly tilting against the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. In Wednesday night's Game 3, he needed only 11 pitches to push L.A. to the brink of tipping over.
Bauers' stunning two-run blast off two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead in the seventh inning. The Brewers kept tacking on runs from there, beating the Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday and moving one win from Milwaukee's first World Series berth since 1982.
"It's incredible," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "Incredible at-bat."
The game started in an equally incredible fashion. Jackson Chourio hit Snell's first pitch over the right-field fence, giving the Brewers the lead before the official scorer had even announced the official game time and weather conditions. The blast came one year to the day of his first-pitch homer off the Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 of last year's NLCS. Yamamoto recovered from that early blow to throw a complete game, the second win of the Dodgers' sweep of Milwaukee.
"I was still putting my batting gloves on to get ready," Bauers said. "I just saw the ball flying, and I knew he got it. It kind of set the tone for the day and let everyone know that we're here to win this game."
After Chourio's homer, Snell dominated the Brewers' lineup through the sixth inning, striking out nine and retiring 14 straight heading into the seventh. He'd thrown just 81 pitches.
Snell seemed to be replicating Yamamoto's gem from last year, but then Andrew Vaughn worked a leadoff walk in the seventh. He was replaced by Brewers captain Christian Yelich as a pinch-runner. Up stepped Bauers, the 31-year-old, one-time journeyman who has found his way during three seasons in Milwaukee.
Bauers enjoyed a career year during the regular season, one that included 94 walks (fifth in the NL) and a robust .389 on-base percentage (second). He also hit 26 home runs, but getting on base is what he does best, as evidenced by the 12-pitch free pass he worked in Game 2 that helped accelerate Yamamoto's early exit.
"Really the mindset was, 'I've just got to get on base here,'" Bauers said. "That's all I was trying to do."
Over the course of 10 pitches, Snell threw three sliders, three fastballs, three changeups and one curveball to Bauers. Pitch No. 10 was a close call: Bauers hooked a drive that curled inside the right-field foul pole.
"There was for sure a moment where I thought to myself like, 'Oh, you're in it again,'" Bauers said of his sudden propensity for epic-length at-bats.
Finally, on pitch No. 11, he did not miss. Bauers unloaded on a belt-high fastball in the middle of the plate, sending a drive 412 feet at 109 miles per hour into the bleachers in right-center field. He tossed his bat aside, yelled at his teammates in the dugout and trotted around the bases with the lead run.
Snell, who played with Bauers in both the majors and minors with the Tampa Bays Rays, couldn't help but admire what his old teammate did against him.
"If I can locate that better, who knows what would happen," Snell said. "It's the best I've ever seen him play. It's a good at-bat. Hats off to him."
According to ESPN Research, Bauers is just the second player since 1988 to reach base twice in the same postseason after plate appearances of at least 11 pitches.
The Brewers weren't done. On deck, preparing to hit after Bauers but also enjoying a bird's eye view as the tension built during the long at-bat, was Garrett Mitchell.
"Super sick," Mitchell said. "What more can you say about J.B., man? He did it the [game] before in Game 2, and he did it again tonight. I think that just goes to show the type of player he is."
Given the stakes of the game and the sudden turnaround, the energy in Dodger Stadium shifted on a dime as soon as Bauers connected, especially as the Dodgers just seemed to finally find a crack in the impenetrable Milwaukee bullpen with a two-run sixth.
Murmurs were still circulating through the ballpark when Mitchell ended Snell's night with a mammoth 428-foot shot to right. The Brewers added two late runs, closer Trevor Megill slammed the door with a four-out save and suddenly the Dodgers' quest to three-peat is very much in peril.
The Brewers are bidding to become the first team ever to sweep a team that swept them in a postseason series the year before. Indeed, a lot has changed in that year, though the Brewers are well aware that three wins does not a pennant make.
Game 4 is slated for Thursday, when the Brewers could clinch a pennant for the first time in 44 years and four days.
"Job is not finished yet," Mitchell said. " We've just got to show up and continue to play our brand of baseball and continue doing it for one another."
