Baseball, MLB

A Long Time Coming for Milwaukee: Brewers One Win Away from World Series

LOS ANGELES, CA — One win away.

The Brewers take a 3-0 series lead in the NLCS! pic.twitter.com/DHW1TAldKz

— MLB (@MLB) October 15, 2026

The last time fans of the Brew Crew could say that or even have the very thought was back in 2018, ahead of Game 7 of the National League Championship Series vs. the Dodgers.

Before then?

The ALCS between the Angels and Brewers in 1982—a year in which Milwaukee would go on to appear in the franchise’s first and only World Series to this day—where they met St. Louis and lost in seven games.

Forty four years since and after defeating the Dodgers for a third consecutive time—with Game 3 of their NLCS matchup ending 6-2 Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium—the Brew Crew are now one win away from heading back to the Fall Classic.

Special, special things Brewing pic.twitter.com/xRVKbVbl0l

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

Also one victory away from sweeping the back-to-back champions, a feat they would like nothing more than to do to Los Angeles what the Dodgers did to them in last year’s NLCS.

You could almost see the handwriting on the wall early on in NLCS Game 3—before the 50,708 fans in attendance were even settled in—with 22-year-old Venezuelan superstar Jackson Chourio hitting the first pitch of the night 391 feet off LHP Blake Snell into the right-center-field pavilion.

JACKSON CHOURIO
FIRST PITCH
BREWERS LEAD! pic.twitter.com/m6ndIzWPkK

— MLB (@MLB) October 15, 2026

Five clean innings later from the Dodger left-hander and Milwaukee’s starter Robert Gasser and we had ourselves the next big hit with Will Smith coming through on a six-inning go-ahead two-run double off Dominican Abner Uribe who had relieved Gasser and put three runners on immediately via a trio of walks.

A new sense of life for the Dodgers with a 2-1 lead.

Will Smith puts the Dodgers in front! pic.twitter.com/rrRQNDj3mL

— MLB (@MLB) October 15, 2026

But this Milwaukee team is different from years before.

Starting on a lead-off walk to Andrew Vaughn in the seventh, and after an 11-pitch at-bat from Jake Bauers, he hit a 412-foot two-run home run to lift the Brewers back up 3-2. Garrett Mitchell followed Bauers with a 428-foot solo home run, extending Milwaukee’s lead to 4-2, and forcing manager Dave Roberts to call for Snell’s night to be over.

He left the game on six innings pitched (101 pitches, 63 for strikes), four hits, four runs, and three home runs.

Smelling blood in the water while watching it all go down were the relievers in the Brewers bullpen. They held a 4-2 advantage at that point and would then be given more insurance on two additional runs—one in the eighth and the other coming an inning later.

A Brew Crew ‘pen that had a stellar 0.31 ERA this postseason after four relievers combined to get the final 15 outs in NLCS Game 2 without allowing a base runner.

And one that picked up their teammate Uribe in NLCS Game 3, as LHP DL Hall and closer Trevor Megill finished the remaining 3.2 innings of work up on one hit and four strikeouts.

Looking Ahead to Game 4 of NLCS

That World Series three-peat the baseball industry has been discussing since last November, yeah, that’s in legitimate jeopardy.

Down 3-0 in this best of seven NLCS to Milwaukee, the Dodgers, with plans of sending RHP Tyler Glasnow to the mound in Game 4 Thursday night, October 15th, will try to save face and force a Game 5.

Meanwhile Milwaukee has yet to announce their plans in regard to a starter for Game 4.