LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Brewers won 97 games with their offense. They had the best record in baseball with it. They staved off their fiercest rival in the playoffs with it.

For the most part, the grave worries about the ability of the Brewers’ bats to produce enough were overstated. 

But now, with the lights at their brightest a stone’s throw from Hollywood, each cry of concern and every scrutinizing shout were on display as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ billion-dollar pitching staff put the Brewers on the brink of elimination. 

For the third straight game, a Dodgers starting pitcher stymied the Brewers, whose pitching finally relented in a decisive sixth inning despite a valiant effort from rookie Jacob Misiorowski, in a 3-1 loss on Thursday, Oct. 16 in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. 

GAME 3 BOX SCORE: Dodgers 3, Brewers 1

In three games, Milwaukee has scored three runs. It has nine hits. Just one of those has come with a runner in scoring position. 

Tyler Glasnow was the latest megamillion Dodger arm to make spare change of the Brewers, turning in 5 ⅔ innings of one-run ball on the heels of gems by Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

On one hand, it’s a historic three-game stretch from three of the best pitchers in baseball. 

On the other, it’s the realization of the worst nightmare of an offense that didn’t slug and relied on stringing together rallies all season. 

Through three games, the Brewers have one homer, a leadoff homer in Game 2 by Jackson Chourio, who left Game 3 in the seventh in pain after seemingly aggravating his hamstring injury on a foul ball. Caleb Durbin doubled and tripled in Game 3, doubling the Brewers’ extra-base hit total in the series in the process. 

Another auspicious start for the Brewers

After Andrew Vaughn’s two-out grounder with two on extended the Brewers’ streak to 36 innings without a hit with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers offered an immediate reminder of what a hit in that context looks like. 

Ohtani flipped a 81 mph flare to the perfect spot down the right-field line for a leadoff triple on a perfectly-executed low-and-away two-strike slider from Aaron Ashby, who was serving as an opener for the third time this postseason. On the very next pitch, Mookie Betts smacked a sinker to right-center for a RBI double.

A crack in the dam in the second

A grueling streak of 36 consecutive innings without a hit with runners in scoring position mercifully game to an end in the second as some aggressive base running by Caleb Durbin paid off. 

Durbin legged out a triple when left fielder Kiké Hernández was unable to make a diving play on his fly ball down the line with one away. Jake Bauers then delivered the first hit with a man in scoring position since his own RBI single in the fourth inning of Game 3 against the Chicago Cubs, lining a single up the middle against the drawn-in infield. 

The Brewers kept putting the pressure on the Dodgers defense. It nearly led to another run when Bauers stole second and later took third when Glasnow fired a pickoff throw into center field, but a diving stop and throw home by third baseman Max Muncy got Bauers out at home for the second out.

Offense goes back to its silent ways

The second time through the lineup against Glasnow, the Brewers were unable to make things difficult to any level against the Dodgers righty, taking a much more passive approach. 

Glasnow struck out the side against Milwaukee’s No. 2 through 4 hitters in the third, then recorded three more punch outs around a two-out Durbin walk in the fourth; the Brewers swung at only one of eight pitches in the zone in the latter frame. 

The only silver lining from the Brewers’ approach was they chased Glasnow with two outs in the sixth – unlike the first two games of the series in which Snell went eight innings in Game 1 and Yamamoto tossed a complete game in Game 3.

Glasnow struck out eight while allowing three hits and three walks, the last of which came to Andrew Vaughn to end his outing. 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to Alex Vesia to face the left-handed hitting Sal Frelick, who dropped to 1 for 9 in the series by striking out looking.

Jacob Misiorowski finally falters

Misiorowski gave the Brewers everything he had in yet another valiant playoff relief outing. 

He just didn’t have enough left his sixth time out. 

After opening the sixth inning with a strikeout looking to Betts for his ninth K of the game, which set a franchise rookie record for a playoff game, Misiorowski allowed a sharp single to Will Smith and walked Freddie Freeman. 

Faced with a decision, manager Pat Murphy kept his rookie in rather than summon Abner Uribe from the bullpen. The very next pitch was a 94 mph slider at the hollow of Edman’s knees but over the plate. The Dodgers second baseman punched it into center, scoring Smith from second as Freeman took third on a weak throw from center fielder Sal Frelick. 

That extra base proved costly when Uribe, brought in following Edman’s hit, chucked a pickoff attempt wide of the first baseman Vaughn to allow Freeman to trot home with a key insurance run.

The throw was bad; the decision was baffling. Uribe has not allowed a single stolen base over the past two years despite only picking off one batter, and Edman is still nursing a bad ankle that likely would keep him from trying to steal. 

It led to an undeserved loss for Misiorowski, who gave his best effort after entering for Ashby with one out in the first.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers offense nowhere to be found as it falls into 3-0 NLCS hole