WP: Jhoulys Chacin (1-0); LP: Walker Buehler (0-1); Save: none; Homeruns: Mil - Orlando Arcia (2); LA - none ooohh...this is an “it’s getting exciting” Box Score The Milwaukee Brewers used their pitching again to win a post-season game, shutting out the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 behind Jhoulys Chacin and four relievers, taking a 2-1 lead in their best of seven series with the LA. The Crew made the most of their scoring opportunities against Walker Buehler scoring four on just five hits off the righty. The Brewers once again got more than they could have hoped for from their starting pitcher. Chacin worked into the sixth, allowing no runs on three hits with one intentional and one unintentional walk, and six strikeouts. Jhoulys had a perfect first, but ran into trouble in the second. Manny Machado smoked a single into left but was erased on a fielder’s choice from Cody Bellinger. Yasiel Puig doubled down the left field line to put runners on second and third with one down. Chacin got perhaps his biggest out of the night when he fanned Yasmani Grandal on a high fastball. With Buehler on deck the Crew intentionally walked Kike’ Hernandez, and Buehler obliged by striking out to end the inning. The bottom of the fourth saw a lead-off walk to Machado, and Bellinger again hit into a force out, but Machado was called for interference on his slide, after a challenge from Craig Counsell. It was really and easy call, and resulted in a double play. In the fifth Grandal dumped a bloop ground rule double the opposite way leading off the inning, but Jhoulys retired the next three to escape the inning unscathed. In the meantime, the Brewers had moved up 1-0. After a Lorenzo Cain strikeout leading off the game, Christian Yelich walked. Ryan Braun whistled a double down the left field line on a hanging slider, and Yeli was flying around the bases and score easily for that 1-0 lead. . @ChristianYelich already has a lot of fond memories at Dodgers Stadium. Now he has one of scoring the 1st run of game 3 of the #NLCS. #OurCrewOurOctober pic.twitter.com/AqHS6bwErl — Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 16, 2018 The Crew doubled the lead in the top of the sixth. With two down Travis Shaw narrowly missed a homerun on a drive to center, and he also narrowly missed an out as Bellinger misplayed the ball and arrive late, just missing on his leap. Buehler spiked a curve ball that bounced away from Grandal and down the third base line, with Shaw scoring easily. 2-0 Milwaukee. Chacin got the first out in the sixth but Mike Moustakas committed a two base error on a grounder from Justin Turner. I don’t know that Jhoulys would have faced Machado anyways, as he has looked dialed in with his hit and then a walk, so Counsell went with Corey Knebel. Machado ripped a grounder that Moose made a nice play on for the second out, and then Bellinger fanned to end the frame. With one down in the top of the seventh Erik Kratz and Orlando Arcia once again provided great at bats from the bottom of the order. Kratzy doubled down the third base line, and then Lando took a high fastball out to right for a two run dinger and a 4-0 lead. Great Googly Moogly! Is there such a thing as a seeing-eye home run? If so, here's an example of one. #OurCrewOurOctober pic.twitter.com/ZQ8obyXE9O — Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 16, 2018 Arcia is now tied for the lead in homers in the post season. Goodness. His three are as many in the NLDS and NLCS as he hit in the entire regular season. Knebel finished his night by fanning the side in the bottom of the inning. After a scoreless eighth for Milwaukee, Joakim Soria came in to face Chris Taylor and got him on a foul pop to first. Josh Hader then came in (to the consternation of John Smoltz and Joe Buck) to face Joc Pederson and Max Muncy...and of course Dave Roberts went with his righties. Josh struck out David Freese and Matt Kemp, hitting the upper nineties and blowing both of them away. Eight pitches, and his night was done - and he’ll be available tomorrow night. Counsell went with Jeremy Jeffress in the ninth (another move that had all of the commentators up in arms), and it was every bit the reincarnation of TPOT. A single by Turner and double from Machado put runners on second and third, but Bellinger popped out to Arcia at short. Yasiel Puig play-acted his way through a four pitch walk, with histrionics about getting the ball over the plate. Two of the four pitches were strikes, but whatevs. JJ responded by striking out Grandal and Brian Dozier to end the game. Tomorrow the Dodgers go with lefty Rich Hill, and the Brewers will have Gio Gonzalez.<doc-sep>The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 on Monday night in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. The Brewers now lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. Here's what you need to know about Game 3. Chacin makes history The question with every Brewers starter is just how long will he be permitted to pitch? In Game 3, Jhoulys Chacin lasted into the sixth inning -- and boy, did he pitch well. Chacin tossed 5 ⅓ innings, allowing three hits and two walks and striking out six. He didn't permit the Dodgers to score. As such, the Brewers' starters this series have now allowed one run in their first 25 ⅔ innings of the series: Chacin, for his part, continued to rely heavily upon his slider. He threw 47 of them on 86 pitches, generating six swinging strikes and 15 additional called strikes. Overall, Chacin has now thrown 10 ⅓ scoreless postseason innings. Add in his NL Central tiebreaker game performance against the Chicago Cubs, and he's allowed one run in his last 16 innings -- all in important games. He also made some history: That's impressive work for someone who had never experienced the playoffs before this year. Chacin's opposite, Walker Buehler, pitched well in his NLCS debut, too. He lasted seven, striking out eight and giving up four runs. Two of those came on an Orlando Arcia home run, with another due to some defensive mishaps in the sixth. They count all the same, but credit Buehler for a fine performance. Brewers don't burn Hader, but Jeffress struggles The Brewers were without Josh Hader in Game 2 and it cost them. They looked like they might avoid using Hader in Game 3, but once the eighth inning rolled around, Milwaukee turned it over to the lanky southpaw for the final two outs in the eighth. He did his part, fanning out David Freese and Matt Kemp, the Dodgers' top right-handed pinch-hitting options. Interestingly enough, the Brewers then pulled Hader. Their strategy throughout the playoffs, and even in the regular season, was to use him for multiple innings then give him a day of rest -- this has been said to be his preferred pattern. Yet it leads one to wonder if Milwaukee wants to change things up and use Hader again in Game 4 if the opportunity arises. After all, given what happened in Game 2, his availability could be the difference between a 3-1 lead and a 2-2 tie heading into Game 5. At the same time, the Brewers had to turn to Jeremy Jeffress, who has struggled this postseason. His woes continued, as he permitted two consecutive hits to begin the inning before Craig Counsell was on the bullpen phone and having Brandon Woodruff warm up. Jeffress then walked Yasiel Puig to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Yasmani Grandal. Jeffress recovered to strike out Grandal. He ended the game by getting Brian Dozier to strike out as well. Even so, not a great night all the same for the Brewers' suddenly shaky closer. Prior to inserting Hader, the Brewers used Corey Knebel for 1 ⅔ innings and Joakim Soria for an out. Machado thwarts potential rally with slide Twice on Monday Manny Machado made a slide that brought Counsell out from the dugout. The second time, umpires ruled that Machado had performed an illegal slide, thereby awarding the Brewers an out they wouldn't have had otherwise. Here's the slide: As you can see, Machado didn't make a real effort to stay on the base. He also reached out to grab Orlando Arcia -- that despite Cody Bellinger being quick enough to beat out the back end without needing help. More on what the rule book says here. Bottom line, Machado needs to be smarter about his slides. There's no guarantee it would've made a difference in the result of Game 3, but there's no sense wasting opportunities over them. Dodgers defense fails again The Dodgers had one of the top defenses during the regular season. According to Baseball Prospectus, their defenders turned 71.5 percent of balls in play into outs, a rate that ranked seventh in the majors. Unfortunately, their gloves have failed them time and again in the NLCS. On Monday, that meant Bellinger misplaying a Travis Shaw batted ball in the sixth, resulting in a triple. Later in the inning, Yasmani Grandal failed to coral a wild pitch, allowing Shaw to score the Brewers' second run of the night. In the eighth, Grandal had a pitch clank out of his glove, allowing Ryan Braun to advance to second. Braun didn't score, but it almost doesn't make a difference. The little things matter, and right now, the Dodgers defense isn't doing them. Orlando's magic During the regular season, Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia hit .236/.268/.307 with three home runs in 348 at-bats. He remained in the lineup because of his defense, but no one feared the young shortstop's bat. And yet Arcia has had a huge postseason. The latest example of that came in the seventh inning, when he delivered an opposite-field two-run home run to give the Brewers a 4-0 lead: Arcia now has three home runs in 20 plate appearances this October. Even after making an out, he's hitting .250/.250/.700 on the postseason. Isn't playoff baseball wild? Yelich continues slump Christian Yelich will, in all likelihood, win NL MVP. He's significantly less likely to win NLCS MVP based on how he's played so far this series. Yelich went 1 for 3 (he had a bunt single) with a walk on Monday, leaving him 2 for 11 in the series. Factor in his 2 for 8 NLDS and he's now 4 for 19 in the postseason. The saving grace for Yelich is that he's walked nine times in the playoffs. Still, imagine telling someone before the playoffs that the Brewers would have a 2-1 lead in the NLCS and with Yelich sporting a .210 batting average. Braun adds to postseason numbers Because this is the Brewers' fifth playoff appearance in franchise history, and because Ryan Braun has partook in three of those trips, it's probably no surprise that he ranks highly in most postseason franchise leaderboards. Braun's performance in Game 3 -- an RBI single that opened the scoring -- simply bolstered his numbers. He's now 13 at-bats and eight hits up over Paul Molitor and two RBI ahead of Cecil Cooper. Surprisingly, Braun ranks just third in OPS among Brewers with more than 20 postseason plate appearances -- behind the leader, Travis Shaw, and … uh, Jerry Hairston Jr. Who knew, right? Best-of-seven series update With the Brewers leading the series 2-1, it's worth checking in on the historical data. According to the Baseball Gauge, teams with home-field advantage who go up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series win that series 73.9 percent of the time. If the Brewers win Game 4, their odds of winning the series shoot up to 84.1 percent. Game 4 won't be a literal must-win situation for the Dodgers, but it'll be close to it. Next up The Brewers and Dodgers will play again on Tuesday evening. The Brewers haven't yet announced their starter, but the Dodgers will trot out Rich Hill. The game will begin at 9:09 p.m. ET and will be televised on FS1. You can stream the game on fuboTV (Try for free). Live updates CBS Sports will be with you the entire way updating this story with the latest scores, highlights and analysis from the Brewers vs. Dodgers. If you are unable to view the live updates below, please click here. Thanks for stopping by.<doc-sep>The Dodgers are a team burdened by expectation, whether the players will admit that, or whether it even matters once the hitter digs in, the pitcher gets set and the ball is thrown. Clayton Kershaw carries past postseason failures into every one of his playoff starts. Shortstop Manny Machado was brought to Los Angeles for this very stretch, as baseball’s biggest midseason acquisition, as the Dodgers’ last puzzle piece, and peak performance is anticipated. This team made it to the World Series in 2017, so anything short of that, as they still sit three wins away from a return, will be seen as a failure.<doc-sep>
CHICAGO, IL - OCTOBER 01: Starting pticher Jhoulys Chacin #45 of the Milwaukee Brewers delivers the ball against the Chicago Cubs during the National League Tiebreaker Game at Wrigley Field on October 1, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) The Milwaukee Brewers are going to play three games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. The first one might be their best chance to win, and it’s the most critical one as well. In order to ensure that this series at least comes back to Milwaukee, the Brewers need to win one game in Los Angeles out of the three. If they can win two of the three, they will come home to Miller Park with a chance to advance to the World Series in Game 6. If, on the off chance they win all three games in L.A., they would clinch out there in Game 5. I think the Brewers can win at least one out west while winning two would be preferable. I don’t see a three game sweep in Los Angeles happening at all. But the best chance to come out with a victory in the City of Angels might be Game 3 on Monday night. Why Game 3? Jhoulys Chacin has been the Brewers ace all season long and he’s on the mound on Monday. He’ll have a fully rested bullpen after the off day on Sunday which means Josh Hader will come into the game if there’s a lead. The Dodgers are starting Walker Buehler, the young, talented rookie right hander. Buehler showed signs of struggle in the NLDS against the Braves, pitching in the Dodgers’ only loss in that series. As good as he is, his lack of experience in playoff situations like this could work against him. The Brewers have a similar scenario with young Freddy Peralta. Peralta has made both rosters but he has yet to appear in a game in October. If the Brewers offense can get to Buehler early, jump out to a lead, Chacin and the bullpen can close down the rest. Chacin is well rested and should be able to go deep into the game. With Hader and the rest of the bullpen being available, this team should be operating at 100% strength. How Important Is Game 3? It’s critical to the Brewers’ chances of advancing. As any pitching coach will tell you, a 1-1 pitch is extremely important in determining how the at-bat will play out. Fall behind, and you’re no longer in control of the count. But if you get ahead, you have the opponent right where you want them and it opens things up for you. Falling behind 2-1 in the NLCS to a very experienced Dodgers team is not a good situation. They’re going to face Kershaw again in Los Angeles and they’re going to face Rich Hill. Those are two veteran arms that have been in this situation before. Walker Buehler is not like those guys. He’s talented, but he’s a rookie. We don’t know yet who will be pitching in Games 4 and 5, but Hill and Kershaw are going to be tough opponents that the Crew’s staff will have to match pitch-for-pitch. With the Milwaukee Brewers own ace on the mound, it’s a game they need to win to get back in control of this series. Just one win in Los Angeles guarantees a return to Miller Park, where the Brewers have a huge home field advantage. If they can win that first game, that takes some of the pressure off of the players for those next two games. Want your voice heard? Join the Reviewing The Brew team! Write for us! These two teams are fairly evenly matched, and I fully expect it to go six or seven games. The Milwaukee Brewers are just three wins away from reaching the World Series.