NLCS Game 3: Jhoulys Chacín's strong start has Brewers two wins from World Series

LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0, on Monday night at Dodger Stadium to take a 2-1 lead in the National League Championship Series.

The Brewers are two wins from their first World Series appearance in 36 years and their second ever. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Milwaukee scored four runs in seven innings against Los Angeles starter Walker Buehler, the final two in the seventh when Orlando Arcia, the No. 8 hitter, homered to right field. Unlikely ace Jhoulys Chacín struck out six in 5 1/3 scoreless innings and the Brewers’ bullpen, hit hard by the Dodgers in the first two games of the series, was lights out until Jeremy Jeffress allowed two hits and a walk in the ninth inning. He would strike out Brian Dozier with the bases loaded.

The Brewers scored in the first inning against the 24-year-old Buehler, making his second postseason start.

With the temperatures in the low 80’s, an unusually strong wind tugging at the center-field flags and the low sun square in the right-fielder’s face, Buehler began with a 97-mph fastball. He’d reach 99 mph in the inning, in which he struck out three batters, each with a fastball that pushed triple digits.

With one out and having walked Christian Yelich, Buehler threw a ball and a strike to Ryan Braun, then his first slider, which arrived in the middle of the strike zone. Braun rifled that pitch into the left-field corner, scoring Yelich from first base.

The Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning. With two out, Travis Shaw struck a long fly ball to center field. Cody Bellinger’s jump was slow and the ball beat him to the wall. Shaw had a triple. Buehler’s one-ball curveball to the next batter, Jesús Aguilar, bounced in front of the plate, caromed off catcher Yasmani Grandal and rolled some 30 feet away, scoring Shaw easily.

There was great contrast between Buehler and Brewers right-hander Jhoulys Chacín. While Buehler coasted into the middle innings with an overpowering fastball, having struck out six Brewers in three innings, five on fastballs and one on a curveball, Chacín joystick-ed his signature slider. He varied its velocity, threw it for strikes or not, threw it inside and out, up and down, any time, anywhere, and kept the Dodgers busy but scoreless.

In the second inning, the Dodgers had a runner at first base with none out, second and third with two out and loaded with two out. They did not score. Grandal, who arrived 6-for-64 in his postseason career and 2-for-18 against Chacín, struck out with two in scoring position, none out, and the second baseman – Shaw – playing in shallow right field. The Brewers would concede the run on a grounder to the right side. He swung under a fastball over the zone.

In the fifth, Grandal flared a double along the left-field line for his third hit of this postseason. The inning concluded with a hail of sliders from Chacín and Grandal still at second base. By the end of the sixth, the Dodgers had taken seven at-bats with a runner in scoring position and were hitless.

Veteran left-hander Rich Hill is expected to start for the Dodgers in Game 4 and Clayton Kershaw is scheduled for Game 5. The Brewers will counter with Gio Gonzalez and Wade Miley on short rest in Games 4 and 5, respectively.

At this point, six games into their postseason, seven if Game 163 were included, the Brewers seem married to just two starting pitchers – Chacín, who started Monday night, and Miley. The rest (Gonzalez started Game 1 of the NLCS, righty Brandon Woodruff started Game 1 of the Division Series) has become reliant upon how things went the game before, and that remains reliant upon how much of Josh Hader was required — which wasn’t much on Monday as he struck out two batters on eight pitches.

They are, in that way, playing it as it comes. Alternately, the Dodgers have locked in their four starters, hoping the long game brings stability, innings and, of course, wins. Through two games, however, Brewers’ starters had recorded one more out than Dodgers’ starters – 23 to 22 – and the Brewers had worked their way back to Chacín, their best starter from April through September, for Game 3. Through two games, Brewers relievers had thrown 40 more pitches, 191 to 151, 46 of them by Hader in Game 1.

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