Brewers take lead in NL Championship Series against Dodgers
LOS ANGELES — Jhoulys Chacin combined with four relievers on a five-hitter, Orlando Arcia hit a two-run homer and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 on Monday to take a 2-1 lead in the NL Championship Series.
Los Angeles loaded the bases against Jeremy Jeffress in the ninth inning, but the struggling closer shut the door.
Jeffress struck out Yasmani Grandal and pinch-hitter Brian Dozier to complete Milwaukee’s third shutout in six playoff games this year.
Game 4 in the best-of-seven series is tonight at Dodger Stadium, with left-hander Rich Hill pitching for Los Angeles against Gio Gonzalez.
Ryan Braun had an early RBI double off rookie Walker Buehler, who struck out eight in seven innings. Travis Shaw tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the sixth. Arcia connected for his third post-season homer in the seventh.
Chacin scattered three hits over 5 1/3 innings before giving way to Corey Knebel, who worked 1 2/3 perfect innings and struck out his last four batters.
With a runner on second and Milwaukee nursing a 2-0 lead, Knebel got Manny Machado to ground out before whiffing Cody Bellinger to end the sixth.
The right-hander then fanned Yasiel Puig, Grandal and Enrique Hernandez in the seventh.
Joakim Soria retired Chris Taylor on a foul pop-up for the first out of the eighth. Josh Hader, who didn’t pitch in Game 2 after tossing three scoreless innings in the opener, struck out pinch-hitters David Freese and Matt Kemp to end the eighth.
Justin Turner singled and Machado doubled to start the ninth, but Jeffress settled down and came through.