Brewers 4, Dodgers 0: A narrow escape for another shutout
LOS ANGELES - Another postseason game, another shutout for the Milwaukee Brewers' pitching staff.
Beginning with Jhoulys Chacín and ending with another nail-biting outing from Jeremy Jeffress, the Brewers blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0, in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
It was the third time in six postseason games Milwaukee kept its opponent off the scoreboard, and Chacín did the heavy lifting early. He got a 1-0 lead in the first and made it stand up the rest of the way in his 5 1/3-inning outing.
The offense chipped in a total of three more runs in the sixth and seven innings, highlighted by Orlando Arcia's third home run of the postseason.
Jeffress then somehow extricated himself from a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth with consecutive strikeouts to give Milwaukee a 2-1 series lead.
It was a big bounce-back performance by the Brewers, who let a three-run lead slip away in a 4-3 loss in Game 2 at Miller Park on Saturday.
Milwaukee now has designs on closing the Dodgers out on their home field, which would afford them the opportunity to pop champagne in a visiting clubhouse for the fourth time in just over three weeks' time.
"In their town, to take the first game in their stadium is huge," Jeffress said. "Not saying we can relax, but we know what the next couple days is going to bring us. So, to get this one out of the way is very good."
The offense failed to build on Arcia's two-run homer in the seventh and manager Craig Counsell raised some eyebrows by going with the struggling Jeffress to try and close the game out rather than sticking with Josh Hader, who'd overpowered the two hitters he faced in the eighth.
Things got off to a bad start as Justin Turner greeted Jeffress by rolling a single up the middle. It was Turner's two-run homer in the eighth Saturday at Miller Park that sealed the Dodgers' 4-3, come-from-behind victory.
"That was a great at-bat by him," Jeffress said. "We battled each other through that whole AB. Right there I just had to come at him, 3-2 fastball, low, down the middle, and he put a great swing on it. Drove it back up the middle.
"That’s what he’s supposed to do."
Manny Machado followed Turner by doubling to left to put two on with nobody out.
Jeffress recovered briefly by getting Cody Bellinger to pop out only to walk Yasiel Puig on four pitches and load the bases.
"That walk to Puig kind of upset me a little bit, but nothing was hurt," Jeffress said. "Ground-ball double play right there would have ended it."
Yasmani Grandal struck out on three pitches on three pitches instead, leaving the Dodgers with one final shot in the form of Brian Dozier.
Jeffress quickly got ahead in the count before catching him looking at a 97-mph fastball to end it, allowing Jeffress and the Brewers to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
"I've said it all year – I strive for those moments," Jeffress said. "That's extra adrenaline. You don't really want it to get like that, but when those times come you've just got to stay within yourself and continue to be the pitcher that you are."
Jeffress has now pitched in all six postseason games for the Brewers, with Corey Knebel the only other Brewers reliever to able to make that claim. He dropped his earned run average to 6.35, but he's now allowed 13 hits in 5 2/3 innings and opponents are hitting .448 against him.
The confidence Counsell demonstrated in Jeffress was much appreciated, the right-hander said.
"He’s done that each and every time something bad has happened to me," Jeffress said. "But to do it in this spot right now in the postseason, it says a lot about Counsell and the confidence he has in each and every player on our team.
"To give me another chance like this, I’m very grateful."
Said Counsell: "We got a four-run lead. I trust him to get those outs. The ninth inning was entertaining. But they didn't score."
Counsell was able to get five outs on 19 pitches from Knebel and two outs on eight pitches from Hader, which would seemingly leave both available for Game 4 on Tuesday.
"Josh did limited work tonight. J.J. finished it off," he said. "We feel like we're in really good shape. We're trying to win the series. We're not just trying to win games here -- we're trying to win the series.
"We've put ourselves in Games 4 and 5 with tonight's effort."
Ryan Braun's first-inning RBI double got Milwaukee out to a quick 1-0 lead against young Los Angeles fireballer Walker Buehler.
Buehler struck out seven more over after the Braun double -- registering as high as 99 mph on the radar gun with his fastball -- to limit the Brewers' offensive output to that single run.
The Dodgers were only slightly more successful against Chacín, who, as expected, didn’t have the raw stuff of Buehler but nevertheless managed to keep putting up zeroes by utilizing a nice mix featuring his terrific slider.
He was in real trouble only once, in the second, but he struck Buehler out looking with the bases loaded to finish the frame.
The Brewers handed Chacín another run in the sixth. With two outs, Travis Shaw sent a drive deep to right-center that Bellinger couldn’t haul in as he made a leaping attempt for the ball at the wall.
The ball caromed hard back toward the turf and Shaw never slowed down as he rounded second and slid into third with a triple.
Then, with Jesús Aguilar at the plate, Buehler uncorked a wild pitch that bounded past Grandal and allowed Shaw to score easily from third to make it a 2-0 game.
A one-out error at third by Mike Moustakas led to Chacín's exit at 86 pitches.
It was a tremendous bounce-back effort by the right-hander, who was knocked around to the tune of nine runs and three homers in the Dodgers' 21-5 shellacking of the Brewers here on Aug. 2.
"I remember two months ago that I was getting behind in the counts a lot," Chacín said. "So today I just made good pitches with my slider and make them chase when I have to. I think that was the key."
Knebel took over and induced a groundout from Machado for the first out before closing out his night with four consecutive strikeouts in the seventh.
The Brewers broke the game open in between thanks to an Erik Kratz double and Arcia's homer, a long fly ball that carried about four rows back in the short porch in right field.
Most of the sellout crowd of 52,793 sat in stunned silence as Arcia rounded the bases and Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts headed out to lift his right-hander.
The homer was Arcia’s third in six postseason games, matching his total from 119 regular-season games.
Joakim Soria got Chris Taylor to pop out to start the eighth, and Hader followed by overpowering David Freese and Matt Kemp with 98-mph fastballs to finish off the Dodgers.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
RACK 'EM UP: Milwaukee's pitching staff registered 14 strikeouts, a new franchise postseason record. It surpassed the former mark of 13, which was set in Game 2 of the 2011 NLDS against Arizona and matched in Game 1 of the NLCS on Friday.
KEEP ON ROLLING: Kratz collected his sixth hit this postseason, making him the first player every to make his postseason debut at age 38 and record six or more hits.
BLANKED: The Dodgers were shut out for the 21st time in postseason play and the first time since Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS at Chicago. It was just their seventh shutout at home, and the first since Game 1 of the 1983 NLCS against Philadelphia.
FOR THE RECORD: Teams that take a 2-1 lead in the NLCS have a 19-7 record all-time. This is also the first time the Brewers have led a seven-game series, 2-1. The Dodgers are 4-11 all-time when trailing 2-1 in a seven-game series.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Machado singled and walked in his first two plate appearances, and both times he was forced out at second base on fielder’s choices. The first time he went in with his arm up and made contact with the covering Orlando Arcia and the second time did much the same thing, only slightly more out of the baseline and a bit more egregiously. His slide that time caused an errant throw to first by Arcia, and Counsell challenged the play on the basis of the Chase Utley rule. After a review of 1 minute 31 seconds, Machado was called out to complete a double play.
COMING UP
Tuesday: Brewers vs. Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS, 8:09 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. Milwaukee LHP Gio Gonzalez (0-0, 4.50) vs. Los Angeles LHP Rich Hill (0-0, 4.15). TV: FS1. Radio: AM-620.
NLCS SCHEDULE
Game 5: Wednesday, 4:05 p.m. at Los Angeles
Game 6: Friday, Oct. 19, 7:39 p.m. at Milwaukee
Game 7: Saturday, Oct. 20, 8:09 p.m. at Milwaukee