LOS ANGELES — The only unresolved issue within their control now is how many days off the Dodgers will have before the World Series begins next Friday.
Simply, the Dodgers are the better team in this National League Championship Series, resembling a club on a destruction path toward a second straight World Series title.
The number to consider is three. That is how many combined runs the Dodgers have surrendered in this series, as the NL West champions moved to the brink of the pennant Thursday with a 3-1 victory over the Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers, up 3-0 in the series, will attempt to deliver the final dagger on Friday and become the NL’s first repeat pennant winner since — wait for it — the 2017-18 Dodgers.
Returning home, the Dodgers received a third straight strong starting pitching performance, albeit not in the realm of the previous two. Tyler Glasnow went 5 ²/₃ innings and allowed one earned run on three hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.
It followed a complete game by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 in which he allowed one earned run. A night earlier, Blake Snell faced the minimum 24 batters over eight scoreless innings, allowing only one hit.
“You have your game plan with the team and I just put that out of my mind, kind of what they have done,” Glasnow said, referring to the Snell and Yamamoto outings. “It was nice to have a 2-0 [series] lead, that’s huge, but as far as attacking hitters and trying to execute, I just did my own thing.”
A Dodgers bullpen that has struggled rose to the occasion with 3 ¹/₃ scoreless innings. Roki Sasaki earned the save with a perfect ninth.
“We haven’t shown our best foot,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “If you had told me the Dodgers would score 10 runs in three games, what would be the [series]? You wouldn’t say 0-3.”
Mookie Betts delivered an RBI double in the first inning for the game’s initial run after Shohei Ohtani’s leadoff triple. It was a welcome contribution from Ohtani, who began the day batting only .147 this postseason.
“Shohei is not performing the way he would like or we would expect,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I just know how big of a part he is to this thing.”
Jake Bauers stroked an RBI single in the second to tie it 1-1. Caleb Durbin’s triple leading off the inning against Glasnow positioned the Brewers for the run.
Glasnow, with the afternoon shadows as a factor, struck out five straight batters beginning in the fourth inning. Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski created his own misery by striking out four of five batters over the same stretch.
Durbin walked and stole second in the fourth to end Glasnow’s strikeout streak before Bauers whiffed to give the right-hander three strikeouts in consecutive innings.
Misiorowski, who entered in the first behind opener Aaron Ashby, finally dented in the sixth, when Tommy Edman delivered an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
The Dodgers extended that lead on Abner Uribe’s errant pickoff attempt at first base that allowed Freddie Freeman to score from third. Will Smith’s single and Freeman’s walk started the two-run rally.
The Brewers received a blow in the seventh, when Jackson Chourio departed the game during an at-bat after reaching for his hamstring on a swing and miss.