The Brewers will not be denied.

Up two games to none in their best-of-seven series, the Brewers scored on the very first pitch of the game, a deep home run by Jackson Chourio.

The way Milwaukee’s Robert Glasser was pitching, that one run looked like it was going to hold up. But Los Angeles’s Blake Snell was just as suffocating, other than that first pitch. 

In fact, it was 1-0 going into the bottom of the sixth until Milwaukee’s manager Pat Murphy made the cardinal sin of pulling a dominating starter.

Abner Uribe came in and instantly walked the bases loaded, then gave up a two-run double to Will Smith and it looked like the Dodgers magic was back.

But no sooner did D.L. Hall replace Uribe and get the Dodgers out of the inning with no further damage did the Brewers instantly score three in the top of the seventh. Just like the Brewers downfall in the sixth started by walking the first batter, Blake Snell walked the first Brewer in the seventh. Then Jake Bauers put up an epic ten-pitch battle. The eleventh pitch, he blasted deep into the right field bleachers to put Milwaukee up 3-2. Garrett Mitchell didn’t need eleven pitches. He homered on the second pitch, and the Brewers put a dagger in the hearts of the 50,708 Dodgers fans in attendance.

For good measure, they piled on a run in the eighth and a run in the ninth to coast to a 6-2 victory over the shell shocked Dodgers.

Milwaukee leads the series 3-0. One more win and they take their first trip to the World Series since 1982. Even better, they knock all the wind out of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s argument that small market teams can’t compete, blowing a hole in his reason for a lockout. 

And that might be the best thing to happen to baseball ever.

*****