LOS ANGELES — At one point, as he was fouling off pitch after pitch, Jake Bauers had a thought.
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“You’re in it again,” the Milwaukee Brewers’ first baseman said, recalling what went through his head as he was in the midst of what would become his second series-altering marathon plate appearance.
Bauers eventually hit a go-ahead two-run homer at the end of his 11-pitch duel with Blake Snell in the seventh inning of the Brewers’ 6-2 victory over the Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers are on the verge of having their season end, and now two of the key moments have been because of Bauers, a product of Marina High in Huntington Beach.
“It’s incredible,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Incredible.”
Garrett Mitchell, another Southern California product, was in the on-deck circle when Bauers hit the homer against Snell.
“Super sick,” said Mitchell, who went to Orange Lutheran High and UCLA. “What more can you say about JB, man? He did it the day before in Game 2, and he did it again tonight. I think that more just goes to show like the type of player he is. It’s a selfless at-bat. He’s just trying to put the ball in play. He’s trying to move the guy over and put an incredible swing on that.”
Mitchell followed with his own homer, back-to-back daggers in the hearts of the the Dodgers and their fans.
Snell was pitching in the seventh with a 2-1 lead, having dominated for the first six innings. He issued a leadoff walk in the seventh, but Manager Dave Roberts said he still felt good about Snell getting the next two left-handed hitters: Bauers and Mitchell.
Bauers fought off several pitches to stay alive. On the 10th pitch of the plate appearance, Snell threw a slider and Bauers yanked it down the right field line, barely foul and barely short of a homer.
Snell’s 11th pitch was a fastball right down the middle, and Bauers belted it. He stood for a moment to admire it, and then he flipped his bat as the ball sailed on its 412-foot journey.
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“I didn’t want to miss a fastball,” Bauers said. “I was looking for a fastball, and I didn’t want to miss it. I said I’ll adjust to anything else, but get a heater, don’t miss it.”
Two days earlier, Bauers saw 12 pitches in drawing a critical two-out walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That loaded the bases, setting up a Christian Yelich go-ahead two-run single, knocking the 2025 World Series MVP out of the game in the third inning.
These two moments have punctuated what has been a career season for Bauers, 31.
He was drafted out of high school by the San Diego Padres in 2013, but he didn’t make the majors until 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays. He then bounced from the Cleveland Guardians to the Seattle Mariners to the New York Yankees before settling with the Brewers.
His first two seasons were nondescript, but this year he hit a career high 26 home runs with an .874 OPS. And now he’s making headlines in the postseason before cashing in through free agency.
“There’s a lot of people to credit, man,” Bauers said. “I’ve played a lot of places. I’ve picked up knowledge from a lot of different people. I think what changed for me this year was I stopped caring about results. I started caring about competing. I started caring about being in the moment and getting out of my own way.
“I came into this year feeling like there was really only one person holding me back, and that was myself. So I think I just gave myself the space to believe that I could play, I could play in this league.”
Snell, who came up with Bauers with the Rays, gave him credit not just for this at-bat, but for where he’s done with his career this season.
“I’ve seen all the ups and downs he’s been through and it’s been a lot of downs,” Snell said. “So for him to go through this right now, he’s earned it. Hats off to him. I mean, what an at-bat. I threw everything I had. Fastball down the middle. If I can locate that better, who knows what would happen. It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play. It’s a good at-bat. Hats off to him.”
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