On Wednesday night, the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers move their National League Championship Series from the midwest to the west coast for Game 3. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. ET, and the game can be viewed or streamed on FOX Sports 1.
The Brewers won both games at American Family Field to hold serve at home, as the No. 1 seed picked up a 2-1 win in the series opener behind RHP Jacob Misiorowski, while posting a higher-scoring 7-4 victory in Game 2 as a home underdog.
Milwaukee cashed the Over in Game 2, halting a 4-0-1 run to the Under during these playoffs. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has managed a 3-3 record in the postseason, as it stopped the Atlanta Braves in the best-of-five NLDS, 3-1, but it has tumbled into an 0-2 series hole in this series.
In the regular-season series at Dodger Stadium, the Brewers posted three victories in a four-game set Aug. 13-16, while the Over-Under split 2-2.
The Brewers will start LHP Robert Gasser, who posted a 5-5 record with a 3.87 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 20 regular-season starts and a relief appearance with 103 strikeouts in 109 ⅓ IP.
Gasser made his first-career postseason start in Game 4 against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, allowing one run, three hits and a walk in four innings with four strikeouts in the no-decision. The 27-year-old El Dorado Hills, California native will make his second consecutive start in his native state, and that might give him a little extra oomph.
However, the Dodgers are going with LHP Blake Snell, who was 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA and 1.10 WHIP with 55 strikeouts across 42 ⅔ IP in the regular season across nine starts.
Snell made his 16th career postseason start in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Braves, allowing 3 ⅔ IP with one run, three hits and five walks allowed, as he labored badly in a 90-pitch effort with five strikeouts.
He faced the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS last season in Milwaukee, allowing just one hit with no walks and 10 strikeouts across eight scoreless innings in a 2-1 win.
The Dodgers are trying to avoid going into an 0-3 series hole, as it would be next to impossible to make the World Series with that type of deficit. This is a must-win game for the Dodgers, and with a red-hot Snell going up against an inexperienced Gasser, Los Angeles is a strong play play on the moneyline, as long as it doesn’t close at -190 or more.
Looking to the total, while the Dodgers have a ton of postseason experience, there is still a ton of pressure to win. The expectations are world title or else. As such, we could see a little bit of nerves, and some lower scores. It wouldn’t be surprising to see this as a 3-2 or 4-2 kind of a game. Let’s go UNDER 7.5 (-118) on the total for Game 3, too.
