LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers have no idea what happened to Shohei Ohtani’s bat.
They can’t tell you who will be their closer tomorrow.
Freddie Freeman has been held relatively in check.
Yet the Dodgers are one game away from a return trip to the World Series.
They once again beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1, and can complete the four-game sweep Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
Simply, this National League Championship Seires has been an absolute mismatch.
Tyler Glasnow was the latest Dodgers starter to shut down the Brewers, giving up three hits and one run through 5 ⅔ innings, with four different relievers giving up just one hit the rest of the game.
The Brewers have now scored a grand total of three runs.
They have only nine hits.
They have played 27 innings and trailed in 26 of them.
Certainly, the Brewers aren’t going anywhere with their top bats disappearing in the postseason.
Cleanup hitter Christian Yelich hit a run-scoring double in Game 1 of the 2018 NLCS against these same Dodgers, but hasn’t driven in a run in the 25 postseason games since. He is 2-for-12 since Game 2 of their NLDSagainst the Chicago Cubs, striking out in his last three at-bats Thursday.
Second baseman Brice Turang is 2-for-23 since Game 1 of the NLDS with 11 strikeouts.
The Brewers’ lone bright spot once again was their pitching, in particular, rookie Jacob Misiorowski. He nearly single-handedly kept the Brewers in the game, entering after Aaron Ashby coughed up a run and could retire one batter in the first inning.
He completely suffocated the Dodgers’ offense for five innings, facing 15 batters and retiring 14 of them, with eight strikeouts.
The Miz was so overpowering that only one player, Mookie Betts, even hit the ball out of the infield until the sixth inning. And the only batter who had reached base against Misiorowski was Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages with a two-out infield single.
Yet, along came the sixth inning, along with fatigue. He gave up a one-out single to Will Smith. He walked Freddie Freeman on a full-count fastball that missed, and then then Tommy Edman made him pay by lining a run-scoring single to center, breaking the tie.
It ended Misiorowski’s afternoon and the Dodgers turned it into a 3-1 lead on Brewers reliever Abner Uribe’s throwing error.
If the Brewers didn’t already have enough offensive woes, their best player, Jackson Chourio, left the game in the middle of his at-bat with a right leg injury in the seventh inning, hobbling down the dugout steps into the clubhouse.
Ohtani, who had been missing since the wild-card series with a 2-for-25 slump, at least joined the Dodgers’ party by opening the first inning with a leadoff triple, the first postseason leadoff triple by a Dodger since the Davey Lopes in the 1977 World Series.
It was Ohtani’s first extra-base of the postseason, snapping a season-long seven-game skid, with optimism that he’ll soon be back to being the most dangerous hitter in the game.
The Dodgers and Ohtani went to extremes to snap him from his slump by having him take extra batting practice, on the field Wednesday instead of his routine in the cage. It’s the first time he took batting practice on the field since joining the Dodgers. They even played his walk-up song, “Feeling Good,’ from Michael Buble over the Dodger Stadium speakers.
“The other way to say it is that, if I hit, we will win,” Ohtani said. “I think he thinks that if I hit, we will win. I’d like to do my best to do that.”
Ohtani denied that pitching in the postseason has contributed to his struggles, but he hit just .222 with four homers and 21 strikeouts on the days he pitched in 2025 and .147 with two homers and 10 stirkeouts the day afterwards.
His slump began in Game 1 of the NLDS when he pitched six innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts at the plate.
“I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation,’ he said. “Physically, I don’t feel like there’s a connection.”
Yet, the numbers have been loud and clear.
“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Roberts said. “He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him. He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And there’s still a lot of baseball left.”
The World Series begins in a week.
The Dodgers should be there waiting.
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Here’s how Game 3 unfolded:
Jackson Chourio injury forces Brewers star from Game 4
Taking a swing in the top of the seventh against Blake Treinen, Jackson Chourio appeared to suffer a leg injury and was removed from the game.
Tommy Edman gives Dodgers the lead
Jacob Misiorowski was cruising but gave up a single to Will Smith and then walked Freddie Freeman to bring Tommy Edman to the plate with two on and out out. Edman, last year’s NLCS MVP, singled to center to bring Smith home and gives the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
Abner Uribe came on to replace Misiorowski and with two outs, made a throwing error trying to check Edman, allowing Freeman to score a crucial insurance run.
Tyler Glasnow comes out in the sixth
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled starter Tyler Glasnow with two outs in the sixth inning after the right-hander walked Andrew Vaughn. Lety Alex Vesia came on and struck out Sal Frelick to end the top of the sixth.
Glasnow finished his day with eight strikeouts and three walks, giving up a run on three hits.
To the sixth: Dodgers 1, Brewers 1
NLCS Game 3 remains tied heading into the sixth inning. Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski has tossed 4 ⅔ scoreless innings since coming on in the bottom of the first.
The right-hander has now retired 10 Dodgers in a row, racking up eight strikeouts so far in his relief outing.
Through three: Dodgers 1, Brewers 1
Jacob Misiorowski has struck out five in 2⅔ innings after replacing opener Andy Ashby and the teams are headed to the fourth inning tied 1-1.
Jake Bauers ties it up in the second
Caleb Durbin hit a one-out triple against Tyler Glasnow in the top of the second and then scored on Jake Bauers’ RBI single with the Dodgers infield pulled in, tying the game 1-1.
Bauers is now 4-for-9 with 3 RBIs in the 2025 postseason.
Bauers proceeded to steal second and then reached third on Glasnow’s error trying to pick him off second – but was cut down at the plate on a brilliant play by third baseman Max Muncy on Joey Ortiz’s ground ball.
Mookie Betts RBI double puts Dodgers in front
Shohei Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with a triple into the right-field corner against starter Aaron Ashby and on the next pitch, Mookie Betts laced an RBI double to center field, bringing Ohtani in to score the first run of the game.
Making his seventh appearance in the Brewers’ eight postseason games, Ashby was replaced by Jacob Misiorowski with one out and the rookie struck out Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez to strand two runners.
Tyler Glasnow works out of trouble in the first
Game 3 is underway at Dodger Stadium and Los Angeles starter Tyler Glasnow worked around a two-out walk to William Contreras and Christian Yelich’s infield single to put up a zero in the first inning.
This is Glasnow’s third appearance of the postseason after posting 7⅔ scoreless innings in the NLDS against the Phillies.
Dodgers lineup today: NLCS Game 3
Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
Mookie Betts (R) SS
Will Smith (R) C
Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
Tommy Edman (S) 2B
Teoscar Hernández (R) RF
Max Muncy (L) 3B
Enrique Hernández (R) LF
Andy Pages (R) CF
Brewers lineup today
Jackson Chourio (R) RF
Brice Turang (L) 2B
William Contreras (R) C
Christian Yelich (L) DH
Andrew Vaughn (R) 1B
Sal Frelick (L) CF
Caleb Durbin (R) 3B
Jake Bauers (L) LF
Joey Ortiz (R) SS
Dave Roberts on Shohei Ohtani’s struggles
Shohei Ohtani is just 2-for-25 (.080 average) since the NLDS against the Phillies began, and mixed up his routine the day before Game 3 by taking batting practice on the field at Dodger Stadium, an extraordinarily rare occurence.
‘The postseason is like a street fight and not like a boxing match. And with that, there’s urgency,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. ‘And I think that if this was a regular-season situation and you’re looking at an expanse of small sample – eight, nine games, whatever it might be – he probably wouldn’t be out on the field.
‘So with the urgency, the postseason, then he needs to make an adjustment, wanted to make an adjustment on his own. And that adjustment was getting on the field. So I think that’s a great thing in his understanding and appreciation for playing with urgency.’
Dodgers pitching rotation dominates
Just 24 hours after Blake Snell became the first pitcher since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 to face the minimum number of batters through eight innings in a postseason game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a home run on his first pitch of the game, and just two hits in his next 110 pitches, striking out seven with one walk. He was so dominant that he permitted just two fly ball outs the entire game, with 15 grounders.
“It’s been incredible,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said after Game 2. “That’s probably the two best back-to-back games pitched ever that I’ve seen.” — Bob NIghtengale