BREWED AWAKENING
Chacin & Co. blank L.A. to take 2-1 lead
LOS ANGELES — For all the prowess this deep Brewers bullpen possesses, it might be manager Craig Counsell’s starting pitchers leaving the biggest mark on this NLCS.
Monday night it was ace Jhoulys Chacin who seized the mound at Chavez Ravine and kept the crowd of 52,793 muted until the Brewers bullpen got involved to close out a 4-0 victory over the Dodgers in Game 3.
The Brewers took a 2-1 series lead and can move within a victory of their first pennant since 1982 on Tuesday, when Counsell will send veteran Gio Gonzalez to the mound.
Chacin followed Wade Miley’s lead from Game 2 by firing 5 ¹/3 shutout innings in which he allowed three hits and struck out six. On Saturday, lefty Miley pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings before the Dodgers rallied against Milwaukee’s bullpen for a 4-3 victory on Justin Turner’s goahead homer in the eighth against Jeremy Jeffress.
“Our guys we’re giving the ball to at the start of the game, they are doing a heck of a job, man,” Counsell said. “And they are setting the tone really for games. They’re putting us in good position. They are putting us in a very advantageous position to use our guys in the bullpen.”
In his previous postseason start, the 30-year-old Chacin pitched five shutout innings against the Rockies.
“I’ve been ready for this for almost 10 years, and just really grateful I had a chance to pitch in the playoffs,” Chacin said.
Corey Knebel fired 1 2/3 shutout innings in relief with four strikeouts. Lefty fireballer Josh Hader entered to get two outs in the eighth in his reemergence after working three shutout innings in Game 1. Jeffress followed with a scoreless ninth and received some redemption from his blown save on Saturday. But it got dicey in the ninth as Jeffress loaded the bases before recording the final two outs.
On the 30th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s game-winning homer against Oakland in Game 1 of the World Series, the Dodgers couldn’t conjure up any drama. Last year on this date, Turner hit a walkoff homer against the Cubs in Game 2 of the NLCS.
Orlando Arcia’s second homer of the series — and third in this postseason — extended the Brewers’ lead to 4-0 in the seventh. Arcia hit only three homers in the entire regular season for the Brewers.
“Every player is going to have their ups and downs and this year was definitely a lot of downs for me,” said Arcia, who was demoted to Triple-A during the season. “Now I do my adjustments and things have been working better and now we’re up here in the playoffs.”
Manny Machado was deemed in violation of the Utley rule in the fourth, when he slid through the bag at second base attempting to break up a double play. Cody Bellinger was originally ruled safe at first, but the Brewers challenged the decision, which was overturned on replay; Machado clearly slid past the base.
“They looked at the review and they got it right,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You have to make a very good effort to hold on to the bag, and apparently we didn’t.”
Ryan Braun’s first-inning RBI double scored the game’s first run. Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk and scored on Braun’s shot into the left-field corner.
The Dodgers’ best early chance came in the second, when Yasiel Puig’s double put runners on second and third, but Yasmani Grandal’s brutal series continued with a strikeout before Kiké Hernandez was intentionally walked and pitcher Walker Buehler struck out. Grandal struck out again in the ninth with the bases loaded and was charged with his third passed ball in the series to go with two errors.
Buehler lasted seven innings for the Dodgers and allowed four earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.