LOS ANGELES — After three dominant starting-pitching performances in the National League Championship Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers will turn to a unicorn with the chance for a sweep.
Two-way star Shohei Ohtani will get the start in Game 4 on Friday in an attempt to both pitch and hit the Dodgers past the Milwaukee Brewers with a trip to the World Series on the line.
Los Angeles took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with a 3-1 victory in Game 3 as right-hander Tyler Glasnow delivered eight strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings on Thursday. That followed a complete-game victory from right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 and eight dominating innings in Game 1 from left-hander Blake Snell.
The Dodgers’ offense has not provided all that much in the series, but huge run production hasn’t been needed. Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman had RBI hits on Thursday, with a third run scoring on a throwing error by Brewers reliever Abner Uribe.
Ohtani has been a part of Los Angeles’ offensive struggles, going 2-for-11 (.182) in the NLCS and 3-for-29 (.103) since the start of the NL Division Series. However, he led off Game 3 with a triple and scored on Betts’ double.
Ohtani’s only start on the mound in the postseason came in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he allowed three runs over six innings against the Philadelphia Phillies to earn the win. He permitted three hits and one walk while striking out nine.
Ohtani will pitch Friday on 12 days of rest.
“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics — it’s a constant work in progress.”
Ohtani has never faced the Brewers in his career as a pitcher.
A berth in the World Series would give the Dodgers a chance at becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000.
While the Dodgers’ offense has been lackluster, the Brewers have been even worse at the plate. Milwaukee has scored just one run in each of the three games and has amassed 10 total hits, with three coming from Caleb Durbin.
“Against these guys, it’s going to take more than what we’ve shown so far,” Durbin said. “Whether that’s just digging deeper, making an adjustment, we have to be better.”
Jake Bauers had an RBI single in the second inning of Game 3 as Milwaukee fashioned a 1-1 tie. However, the Brewers went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position after going 0-for-1 in those situations combined in the first two games.
“We just need a little spark, right? We’ve got to have a spark,” Bauers said. “We’ve got to have something that gets the energy up, and we’ve got to be better. That’s really the bottom line. We’ve got to be better as an offense.”
Once again, Brewers manager Pat Murphy declined to name a starting pitcher, but he could have veteran left-hander Jose Quintana pitch bulk innings in Game 4. Murphy was asked about scrambling the pitching roles during the most important time of the season.
“It’s life in the postseason, for sure,” Murphy said. “And everybody’s going to be critical of everything that doesn’t go perfect, you know what I mean? They were probably critical in the (NLDS), too. But we won. So there it is.”
–Doug Padilla, Field Level Media
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