Dodgers on the cusp of WS

Los Angeles, CA (News4usOnline) – Beating a world champion requires skills, the right kind of moxie and dash of luck. 

The Milwaukee Brewers are good, but in the three games that they have played against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, the other two attributes have somehow escaped the National League Central Division winners. 

Tyler Glasnow put on a dominant performance against the Brewers and the Dodgers aided their young pitcher with just enough scoring to record a 3-1 win at Dodger Stadium in Game 3 of the NLCS. 

The Dodgers are one game away from advancing to the World Series. 

Glasnow, coming off a rock-solid performance against the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series, said having back-to-back games in which he performed well means a lot to him and the team. 

“Yeah, it means a lot,” Glasnow said. “I think especially earlier on in the playoffs, like earlier in my career, I didn’t have a ton of success. I think just being able to go out, be myself, stay athletic and pitch well, it’s been fairly great. And having that bullpen outing, to start, felt nice and it carried over well into my starts, and hopefully I can keep it going.”

The pitching in Game 3 was the theme. Milwaukee needed someone to match the strikeouts with Glasnow, the starter on the mound for Game for the Dodgers. 

Backing up his strong outing against the Phillies in the NLDS, Glasnow pitched five and two-thirds innings and had Milwaukee batters whiffing in the time he was in the game. 

In the short amount of time he pitched, Glasnow struck out eight batters and surrendered three hits. Glasnow’s dominance was the third straight game that the Dodgers got a supreme performance from one of their starting pitchers. 

At one point, Glasnow struck out the side in the third and fourth innings, solidifying his pitching prowess. 

“I thought the curveball got better,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in his postgame press conference. “The curveball started to become more of a pitch for him. And they went heavy left today. That was a pitch that was able to neutralize those guys. 

“I thought Will did a great job, the sequencing, using the fastball enough. But, yeah, I think for me that’s, really proud of Tyler in the sense of the pitch count was early, and knowing we still needed length from him.”

Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto led off the pitching parade for the Dodgers in this series. Glasnow took his turn with Shohei Ohtani scheduled to hit the mound in Game 4. The Brewers, knowing what was at stake in Game 3, put pitcher Jacob Misiorowski on the mound to counter Glasnow. 

For a while, Misiorowski appeared to be the Dodgers’ kryptonite as he whiffed nine LA batters in just five innings of pitching. However, things caught up to Misiorowski and the Brewers when Tommy Edman connected for a line drive single into centerfield to drive home Freddie Freeman with the go-ahead run in the sixth inning. 

The Dodgers then tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth to provide a two-run cushion and allow their bullpen to do the rest of the work for Glasnow. Roberts gave his relief pitchers kudos for coming in and finishing the job for Glasnow.

“I think the thing about our guys is they’re battle tested, and they know that I’ve never lost faith in them,” Roberts said. “They’ve never lost confidence in each other. So to see what they’re doing right now, I’m not surprised. We knew all along we were going to need these guys. And these guys are delivering, which is huge. We’re doing a great job of preventing runs. And the bullpen deserves a lot of credit.”