LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell finally had a reason to look so tired.
Even when he’s slept well and in good spirits, the two-time Cy Young winner wears an exhausted, weary look on his 33-year-old face. The big bags settle under his eyes. When he throws, they turn red and swollen. It’s impossible to miss it. As a result, Snell, a teetotaler, often looks exhausted, stressed, overworked, even beleaguered as he tears opposing lineups to shreds.
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But on Wednesday, during the seventh inning of Game 3 of the NLCS, Snell’s shocked expression was shared by 50,708 other people.
Jake Bauers, with whom Snell played in Tampa Bay’s minor league system, had just redirected a 97.8 mph heater into the right field seats for a two-run homer. Adding to the drama: Bauers’ long ball that changed the series, changed the season and derailed the dynasty came on the 11th pitch of a fierce at-bat battle, Bauers’ second such crucial plate appearance in this series. For six innings, Snell had seemed completely impenetrable. The Brewers hitters looked helpless. Bauers changed everything with a swing that will long be remembered in Wisconsin.
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As baseball faded away, the Milwaukee dugout — and the traveling Brewers fans behind it — exploded in celebration.
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The rest of Dodger Stadium was transformed, in an instant, into a library.
Things got even more amazing when the very next batter, Garrett Mitchell, doubled for a solo blast of his own. This left Snell and everyone else in disbelief. He was done, and so, it seemed, were the Dodgers.
“Three home runs in a game?” A controlled Snell, who also gave up a big ball to Jackson Chourio on his very first pitch, said after Los Angeles’ 6-2 loss. “I mean, I haven’t given up one all year. To give up three in a game, it’s pretty frustrating.”
Even more frustrating, for both Snell and the Dodgers, was that for about 15 minutes before Snell’s implosion, this moribund juggernaut shook itself and came back to life with its fans. After being shut out and shut down for the first five innings by Milwaukee starter Robert Gasser, the Dodgers were given a window thanks to ineffective Brewers reliever Abner Uribe.
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In the bottom of the sixth, Uribe gave away free passes to three of the first four batters he faced, loading the bases for scuffing Los Angeles catcher Will Smith, who entered Game 3 just 1-for-23 in October. But Uribe, determined not to get home, threw a fastball to Smith, who threw it against the midsection of the wall in deep left-center field. Two Dodgers rushed home. The courtyard erupted. Brewers skipper Pat Murphy approached the mound.
It seems that the series has changed. Even as Milwaukee reliever DL Hall struck out the next two Dodgers, putting two in scoring position, Chavez Ravine vibrated with optimism that this season, this streak of magical dominance, was not yet dead.
This feeling, largely thanks to Bauers, was remarkably short-lived.
“I was looking for a fastball and I didn’t want to miss it,” the well-traveled first baseman said in his postgame press conference. “I said I’d adjust to something else, but get a heater – don’t miss it.”
The fact that Bauers and Snell, former Rays farmhands who shared countless bus rides in the minor leagues, found themselves here, on this stage, is a testament to the long, winding, beautiful road that is professional baseball.
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Wednesday’s two main characters have taken very different paths in the decade since they last shared a clubhouse. Snell remained in Tampa Bay, achieving stardom, two Cy Youngs and an estimated $139 million in career earnings. Bauers, meanwhile, failed to find his place on The Show. He bounced from organization to organization as filler, as depth, as a backup plan.
Twenty-six days before Snell signed his five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers in November 2024, Bauers was outright released by the team he has since pushed into a Fall Classic game. But the Brewers, before 2025, brought Bauers back in a minor league deal. And through circumstance, faith, confidence, stubbornness and determination, the 31-year-old SoCal kid ultimately transformed himself into a major impact player. This season, he was the best hitter on the best team in baseball.
Over the past few days, he’s taken things to a whole new level, looking as involved as a baseball player can be.
“I’ve seen all the ups and downs that he’s been through, and it’s been a lot of downs. So for him to go through this now, he’s earned it. Hats off to you,” a conciliatory Snell shared after the game.
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“It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play.”
The same cannot be said for Snell’s Dodgers, who now find themselves at the foot of a very steep mountain. Only one team in MLB history, the 2004 Red Sox, has managed to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. The fact that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts played on that legendary Boston team is more of a coincidence of history than a useful rallying cry.
Don’t hide it; These Dodgers are in dire straits.
“We have to give them something to be happy about,” Roberts said of the home fans’ understandable lack of enthusiasm in Game 3. “A little bit of downhill play for a little while, where I think it’s just this whole series, they outplayed us, outplayed us.”
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By the ninth inning, even the stadium’s exuberant hosts were struggling to maintain the morale of a rapidly declining crowd.
“If you’re still here, that means you’re a real Dodgers fan,” one shouted.
In these regions, surrender is not signaled by white flags but by empty seats. There will likely be plenty here on Thursday, with the Dodgers only playing for survival and slim chance.
It’s a magnificent place for this sporting colossus, one loss away from a long winter of regrets.
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