After NLCS Game 3, Something’s Brewing in MLB Playoffs

Chacin silences the Dodgers into the sixth, then Milwaukee’s vaunted pen takes over to complete a 4-0 MLB playoffs shutout

For the third straight game, Milwaukee’s much-maligned starters shackled the vaunted Los Angeles Dodger lineup. And this time, the Brewer bullpen cooperated, the result being a 4-0 Milwaukee MLB playoffs victory and a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series.

Jhoulys Chacin, Milwaukee’s most reliable regular season starter, limited the Dodgers to three hits in five and one-third innings. That ran the record for the Brewers’ starters to 13 innings of work, one run allowed, six hits, three walks, 10 strikeouts and a 0.69 earned run average.

With starters like that, who needs a bullpen? The Brewers, of course…and on Monday night they got one. The relievers who followed Chacin to the mound blanked the Dodgers without a baserunner until closer Jeremy Jeffress made things interesting in the ninth, as has become his post-season habit.

Given the performance of their pitchers, Milwaukee settled this outcome in the first inning. After Dodger wunderkind Walker Buehler struck out leadoff hitter Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich walked and Ryan Braun tomahawked a hanging slider into the left field corner for a double, driving Yelich across.

The Dodgers mounted just two decent threats, the first coming in the second inning. With runners at second and third and one out, Yasmani Grandal swung for the fences, missed and struck out. His whiff, the first of several bad moments for Grandal, allowed Chacin to intentionally walk Kiki Hernandez and face Buehler, who he struck out to quell the threat.

Like Chacin, Buehler pitched well, but he was susceptible to the big hit. In the sixth, Travis Shaw tripled over Cody Bellinger’s head in dead center, then scored on a wild pitch. One inning later, Erik Kratz doubled and Orlando Arcia swatted a high outside fastball into the seats in right for a two-run home run.

Chacin mastered the Dodgers through five innings, but when Mike Moustakas boxed Justin Turner’s hot grounder and then threw wildly for a two-base error, Brewers manager Craig Counsell went to his bullpen. Corey Knebel retired the side without damage, then struck out the side in the seventh. Josh Hader fanned two in a perfect eighth, turning it over to Jeffress.

That’s when things finally got interesting for Dodger fans. Jeffress had a 1.29 ERA in 79 appearances during the regular season, but his post-season line has been ugly. Turner opened the ninth with a base hit up the middle, and Machado followed with a double to the wall in left, putting runners at second and third with none out.

Jeffress got Bellinger to pop out, but walked Yasiel Puig bringing the tying run to the plate. For Dodger fans, that was the good news. This was the bad news: It was Grandal, who not only had already struck out twice, but who was zero for eight with runners on base in the series, stranding 13 of them. Make that 16; Jeffress fanned Grandal a third time.

When Brian Dozier popped out, Jeffress walked off the mound having accomplished his job, at least the essentials of it if not the details.

For the night, Dodgers hitters went zero-for-nine with runners in scoring position, striking out six times.

Game 4 of this MLB playoffs series will be played Tuesday night in Los Angeles.