Through the first five innings Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers waited patiently.
For the impossible shadows to subside on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
For Milwaukee Brewers rookie star Jacob Misiorowski to lose steam amid a loose relief power outing.
For the door to open even slightly and give their veteran club – seeking a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series – the opportunity to walk through it.
At the end of the sixth inning, the moment finally arrived.
And once the Brewers hesitated, the relentless Dodgers pounced.
With a two-run rally fueled by professional hitting, aggressive baserunning and a bit of cat-and-mouse with the pitching clock, the Dodgers broke an early tie, took a lead they didn’t want to relinquish and headed toward the World Series gates with a 3-1 victory in Game 3 of the NLCS.
For a team that was so drastically disappointed in the regular season, the Dodgers are 8-1 in these postseasons.
“I just think we have guys that have a slow heart rate, and that’s kind of what makes us successful in the postseason,” said Tommy Edman, who had the game-clinching hit in the sixth inning with a single. “We just do a good job of keeping a level head, even in big situations.”
That’s what happened in the sixth, when the Dodgers ignored a sluggish start to the game that had been dominated by Misiorowski and Tyler Glasnow.
The shadows are gone. Misiorowski’s business began to decline. And right on cue, the defending champions took advantage.
The inning began with a one-out single by Will Smith, who committed a rare Misiorowski error and hit a hanging slider on a liner to left.
Then, Freddie Freeman came to the plate and beat the rookie pitcher.
On the second pitch of the bat, Misiorowski came up and held the ball on Freeman, waiting to make his throw just before the clock expired.
Freddie Freeman celebrates with his teammates in the dugout after scoring in the sixth inning against the Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“I could see Freddie getting nervous in the box,” said Edman, who was standing on deck. “After that, I said to myself: ‘OK, he will definitely intervene in the shortest possible time.'”
Freeman quickly adjusted, waiting for the clock to drop to eight seconds — the time a batter should be ready to throw — before getting back up and crouching into his stance.
“It’s Freddie,” Misiorowski said. “It’s a bit normal.”
The sequence repeated for the rest of the six-pitch battle, until Freeman finally walked on a wide, full fastball.
Edman then adjusted for a slider on his first pitch from Misiorowski and laced an RBI single to center that broke a 1-1 tie.
“I’m not really looking for that (pitch),” Edman said. “He throws 102 mph, so you have to be ready for the fastball. I think the swing that I took, I was just able to stay there. And, you know, get it out to center field.”
Tommy Edman hits an RBI single in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 3-1 win over the Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Edman’s single included another heady — and ultimately rewarding — decision by Freeman, who charged aggressively for third base as the throw was cut off in front of home plate.
That decision paid off two batters later, when heavily used Brewers closer Abner Uribe threw an errant pitch to first that sailed past Andrew Vaughn and down the right-field line.
Freeman walked the last 90 feet home.
The bullpen helped build a 3-1 lead, getting 10 big outs from Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda and Roki Sasaki in what was a return to form for the battling relief team.
And now, with Shohei Ohtani expected to start in Game 4 Friday night, the Dodgers are in position to get back into the Fall Classic.
“We’re five wins away from what we really want,” shortstop Mookie Betts said.
Before the sixth inning, Game 3 was the first in this series that really seemed up for grabs.
The Dodgers scored first, thanks to a questionable tactical move by the Brewers – who used left-handed reliever Aaron Ashby as their opener, forcing him to face the Dodgers’ top order for the third time in the series.
This familiarity backfired. Ohtani hit a leadoff triple to the right field corner, ending his seven-game season-long drought without an extra-base hit. Betts drove it in on the next pitch, recording an RBI double into the right-center field gap.
It wasn’t until Misiorowski came in that the Brewers settled down.
Four months after dismantling the Dodgers in a six-inning, one-run, 12-strikeout gem that helped him earn a surprise (and controversial) All-Star selection just five starts into his MLB career, the long-limbed, flame-throwing right-hander was just as rugged for most of his five-inning outing.
He stranded the two runners he inherited in the first with consecutive outs. He worked around an infield single from Andy Pages in the second. Then, as the shadows took full effect behind him, he didn’t let another runner reach base until the fateful sixth. In all, he struck out nine of his first 16 batters.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivered in the first inning Thursday against the Brewers.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Glasnow, however, found similar success in a 5⅔ inning, one-run, eight-strikeout start – overcoming some early wobbles with some help from his defense.
The Brewers scored their only run in the second, after Caleb Durbin tripled (with the help of an overly aggressive Kiké Hernández dive in left field) and scored on Jake Bauers’ RBI single.
But they were denied further in the inning when third baseman Max Muncy turned what Glasnow later called “the play of the game, of course”; making a diving stop from a field position with Bauers on third, then spinning for a throw home that beat Bauers and helped keep the game tied.
“If it had turned into two (races there), it’s a different story,” Glasnow said. “After that, the relief of that inning, him making that good defensive play, I was able to go back and try to stay in the zone and get some quick outs. It was a huge play. He did a great job.”
From there, Glasnow executed his plan, retiring 14 of his next 15 batters before his day ended with a two-out walk in the sixth.
The start kept the Dodgers’ postseason rotation at a pristine 1.54. The group also has 71 strikeouts in 58 ⅓ innings in their nine starts combined.
“It’s our pitch,” Muncy said when asked to explain the Dodgers’ October 8-1 record. “Offensively, there are situations where we can do a better job. But, with the way our starting pitchers have been, we give them just enough.”
On Thursday, the usually annoying Brewers didn’t help themselves either.
The decision to start Ashby, then stay with Misiorowski for so long, did not come to fruition.
Uribe’s wild attempt at Edman (who has been playing with a bad ankle this postseason) was even more puzzling, especially since the reliever hadn’t allowed a steal since 2023.
“I was really surprised,” Edman said. “I’m glad it happened.”
There was another surprising move in the seventh, when after Durbin hit a leadoff double, manager Pat Murphy left Bauers in the game for a left-on-left matchup against Vesia. This at-bat ended with a harmless fly ball to shallow center field.
It was the first of nine straight outs that would end the game, and quite possibly the series – a series in which the Dodgers not only outscored the less talented Brewers, but also outplayed them in the most critical situations.
“We’re really excited,” Edman said. “It’s been a bit of a trying year. We didn’t play our best during the regular season. But we’re warming up at the right time and we’re just one win away (from the World Series). Hopefully we can finish tomorrow.”
