Jake Bauers stuns Dodgers with 11-pitch homer in NLCS Game 3 By Rive News Research desk | Rive News Published October 15, 2026 at 7:30 AM PKT ## Key takeaways - Jake Bauers hit a two-run homer on the 11th pitch. It gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead. - The Brewers won Game 3 by 6-2.
Web StoryWatch this story in 15 seconds →They now lead the series 3-0. - Two years ago, Bauers nearly quit baseball. Now he is a playoff hero.
His 11-pitch at-bat lifted the Brewers past the Dodgers.
What happened Game 3 took place on Wednesday, October 14. The game was at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Milwaukee faced the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Brewers won the game 6-2.
An at-bat is one turn at the plate. A batter faces the pitcher. Each pitch is one throw.
Milwaukee struck first. Jackson Chourio hit a homer on the first pitch. The Brewers led 1-0.
Then Dodgers starter Blake Snell took control. He retired 14 batters in a row.
Snell is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. The award goes to the best pitcher in each league. He looked sharp for six innings.
The Dodgers took the lead in the sixth inning. Reliever Abner Uribe loaded the bases with walks. Will Smith hit a two-run double.
Los Angeles led 2-1.
Then came the seventh inning. Andrew Vaughn drew a seven-pitch walk. Christian Yelich ran for him as a pinch-runner.
A pinch-runner replaces a slow runner on base.
Bauers stepped to the plate. He faced Snell. Snell had not allowed a runner for five innings.
Bauers fell behind in the count. The count is balls and strikes.
He fouled off five pitches with two strikes. A foul ball goes out of play. It keeps the at-bat alive.
On the 11th pitch, Snell threw a fastball. A fastball is a hard, straight pitch. It came in at 97 mph.
Bauers hit it 412 feet to right field. It was a two-run homer. The Brewers led 3-2.
Most of the dugout ran onto the field. The dugout is where players sit.
Garrett Mitchell hit the next pitch over the fence. His homer went 428 feet. The Brewers led 4-2.
Snell left the game. He gave up four runs on four hits. He struck out nine batters in six innings.
Milwaukee added two more runs. A wild pitch scored one run in the eighth. Joey Ortiz drove in one more in the ninth.
The final score was 6-2.
Bauers had done this before. In Game 2, he faced Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He worked a 12-pitch walk.
The walk loaded the bases. Yelich followed with a two-run single. Milwaukee won that game 7-4.
The long road to this moment Bauers was drafted in 2013. The San Diego Padres picked him. He came out of Marina High School.
The school is in Huntington Beach. It sits about 40 miles south of Dodger Stadium.
He batted .202 for the New York Yankees in 2023. A .202 average means about two hits in ten at-bats. Milwaukee traded for him that November.
He batted .199 for the Brewers in 2024.
After that season, he nearly quit baseball. He was ready to hang up his spikes. Then his wife told him she was pregnant.
He wanted to provide for his growing family. He stayed in the game to keep their health insurance.
That choice changed his career. This season, he led the Brewers with 26 home runs. OPS is one number for total hitting.
His OPS was .874. He drew 94 walks. He drove in 86 runs in 144 games.
Each mark set a new career high.
He turned 31 last week. This is his third year with Milwaukee. It is his fifth team in seven big league seasons.
He plays first base and corner outfield. Those are spots at the edges of the field.
Manager Pat Murphy praised the at-bat. He called it incredible. Bauers said his mindset changed this year.
He stopped caring about results. He started caring about competing. He wanted to stay in the moment.
Why it matters The win put Milwaukee one win from the World Series. The Brewers last played there in 1982. That is 44 years ago.
The Dodgers are the two-time defending champions. They won the last two World Series. Now they sit on the brink of elimination.
One more loss ends their season.
The Dodgers had only trailed 3-0 once before. That was in the 1966 World Series. The Baltimore Orioles swept them that year.
Bauers changed the series with two at-bats. His Game 2 walk sparked a rally. His Game 3 homer flipped a game.
Both came against top pitchers. Both came late in close games.
The Brewers have never beaten the Dodgers in a playoff series. They lost three prior postseason meetings. One more win would break that run.
Our NLCS Game 3 preview set up the stakes before first pitch. The Dodgers also dropped Shohei Ohtani to sixth in the lineup. Read our report on the MLB payroll gap for more context on the two clubs.
The Brewers can sweep the series. A sweep means winning all four games.
Tyler Glasnow starts for the Dodgers. Los Angeles must win to stay alive. A loss ends the season.
Milwaukee has not named a Game 4 starter. The Brewers need one more win. They have four chances to get it.
If Milwaukee wins, it goes to the World Series. If Los Angeles wins, the series goes on. The Dodgers would still trail 3-1.
Bauers will be a key man to watch. The Dodgers will try to pitch around him. Or they will attack him early in the count.
Either way, his patience at the plate is now a known threat.
One more win. That is all Milwaukee needs. After years of near misses, the Brewers stand at the door.
Bauers, the man who nearly quit, may knock it down.
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