A 6-2 defeat at home to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday left the Los Angeles Dodgers without a win through three games of the National League Championship Series, with the back-to-back title holders now requiring a sweep of all four remaining contests to advance.
After the final out, Rojas — an infielder by trade — addressed the team directly, telling them that winning titles comes down to taking advantage of the moments that count. Throughout the series, that objective has gone unmet. Rojas attributed the team's 0-3 record to those factors, even as the third contest had been trending toward a Los Angeles victory.
A two-run double from Will Smith off Abner Uribe put the Dodgers ahead 2-1 in the sixth inning, while Blake Snell had earlier strung together 14 consecutive outs following a leadoff homer that Jackson Chourio hit on the game's opening pitch. Milwaukee took the lead for good when three runs crossed the plate in the home half of the seventh inning.
Facing an 11-pitch sequence from Snell, Bauers connected on a two-run shot that cleared the wall and nudged Milwaukee back into the lead. A solo home run off Mitchell's bat extended the lead, and two further scoring innings — the eighth and ninth — allowed Milwaukee to widen the gap.
Throughout the series, pivotal plays and turning-point situations have landed in Milwaukee's favour. A 2-1 victory in the opener gave way to a 7-4 result in the second contest, where Milwaukee's relief corps handled all 15 Dodgers batters it encountered without surrendering a single baserunner to seal that win.
Run production from the Dodgers' lineup has dried up across recent outings. Throughout the postseason, the Los Angeles lineup has gone without a home run in the series and repeatedly left runners stranded when they reached scoring position.
Signed to a one-year contract for what he has described as his farewell campaign, Rojas — now 37 — brought a meaningful contribution to the Dodgers' run to the World Series title the previous autumn. Prior to this postseason run, a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven had visited the Dodgers just once — during the 1966 World Series, when Baltimore's Orioles took all three of those games without defeat.
Game 4 at Dodger Stadium on Thursday puts the team on the brink of postseason elimination, while Milwaukee arrives needing one more victory to wrap up a National League pennant for the first time in franchise history.