There was no room for hesitation on Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. Not with the way the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen had been suffocating bats all postseason long, and not with the way the Dodgers offense has been surging as their starting pitching has been dominating.
And definitely not in October when even the narrowest of margins can evaporate like dewdrops in the early morning sunrise.
So on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium, before a sellout crowd of 51,251 all draped in blue and nerves, the Los Angeles Dodgers made their move.
The Dodgers manufactured three runs, and their pitching staff did the rest as they beat the Brewers, 3-1, in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series to force Milwaukee to the brink of elimination and put themselves one win away from returning to the World Series.
For Milwaukee, opener Aaron Ashby barely had time to exhale before his day was done. Shohei Ohtani, who has struggled since the Wild Card series, led off the game with a triple down the right field line. Mookie Betts followed with an RBI double and before you could blink the Dodgers had the lead.
A leadoff triple by Shohei Ohtani and a double by Mookie Betts has the @Dodgers cooking early 😤 pic.twitter.com/bwPRHz9BzY
— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2025
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy came with the quick hook, turning to his rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski — “The Miz” — whose 103-mph heat and sharp slider have made him a nightmare for hitters all year. And for five innings, the kid haunted the Dodgers dreams.
Misiorowski mowed down Dodgers hitters in waves, retiring 15 of the next 16 he faced. He struck out nine, his fastball slicing through the night air like a blade. The crowd buzzed, uneasy, every time he reared back and unleashed another thunderbolt. But dominance in October is a fickle thing. It lasts right up until it doesn’t.
In the sixth, Will Smith broke through with a single. Then Freddie Freeman worked a walk. And on the very next pitch, Tommy Edman — the quiet veteran who seems to find the seams when it matters — jumped on a first-pitch fastball and lined it to center for an RBI single. Just like that, the Dodgers had snatched back the lead, and “The Miz” was done.
TOMMY EDMAN PUTS THE @DODGERS IN FRONT! pic.twitter.com/sznkErNPTT
— MLB (@MLB) October 17, 2025
Tyler Glasnow, pitching just miles from where he grew up in Santa Clarita, took the mound for Los Angeles with a calm that belied the stakes. It wasn’t the dominance of Blake Snell’s masterpiece Game 1 or Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game in Game 2, but Glasnow gave his team exactly what it needed — 5.2 innings of precision, poise, and purpose.
He allowed just one run on three hits, striking out eight. The lone blemish came in the second inning, when Kiké Hernández dove for a ball he probably shouldn’t have. His glove hit grass a step short, the ball rolled to the wall, and Caleb Durbin sprinted to third. Jake Bauers followed with a single up the middle to tie it. A moment of overzealousness, punished by the game’s ruthless timing.
Caleb Durbin’s triple leads to a Jake Bauers base knock 💪
We are tied in LA! pic.twitter.com/GlErhhn88l
— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2025
But this Dodgers team didn’t let it linger. The bullpen — Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda, and phenom Roki Sasaki — stitched together 3.1 scoreless innings to close it out, each arm passing the baton with surgical precision.
MOOKIE BETTS 🤯
WHAT A PLAY! pic.twitter.com/Pk8DLCYGCV
— MLB (@MLB) October 17, 2025
Sasaki, pitching with the composure of a veteran twice his age, ended the game with a strikeout in the ninth to seal it, sending the crowd into a roar that sounded more like relief than celebration.
ROKI SASAKI SLAMS THE DOOR 😤 pic.twitter.com/TSSkUhJDcZ
— MLB (@MLB) October 17, 2025
The Dodgers tacked on an insurance run after an error by Brewers’ reliever Abner Uribe on a pickoff attempt, and the 3-1 victory pushed Los Angeles to a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS— one win away from a return to the World Series.
Now, the Brewers are the ones gasping for breath, their season on life support, forced to stare down the sport’s most impossible task: beating Shohei Ohtani under the lights of Dodger Stadium in October.
Because on Friday night, Ohtani won’t just be swinging. He’ll be pitching — for the first time in his career on this stage, in this park, with a broom waiting just off to the side of the dugout.
And if history has taught us anything, it’s that legends tend to write their own endings.
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Source: NBC Los Angeles