LOS ANGELES — Kyle Schwarber homered twice, with his first towering shot clearing the right-field pavilion in a three-run fourth inning, and the second-seeded Philadelphia Phillies avoided a sweep with an 8-2 victory over the Los third-seeded Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of their National League Division Series on Wednesday night.
It was the first Schwarbomb of the postseason for the NL’s leading home run hitter during the recently completed regular season and the first allowed by the Dodgers in this year’s playoffs. Schwarber snapped an 0-for-8 skid in the NLDS, slugging a 96 mph fastball from Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto 455 feet.
“It’s ridiculous how far that ball went,” Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said. “Sometimes it’s hard to create your own momentum, and you’ve got to build off things like that. No better way than the ball leaving the stadium.”
Schwarber became just the second player to homer over the pavilion at Dodger Stadium, joining Willie Stargell, who did it for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1969 and 1973. Fans standing near the back railing pointed as the ball went out.
“I didn’t even see where it landed,” Schwarber said. “I was looking in the dugout, trying to get the guys going.”
Schwarber’s 23 career postseason homers rank third all time and are the most among left-handers.
Game 4 of the best-of-five series is Thursday at Dodger Stadium, with the reigning World Series champions now clinging to a 2-1 lead.
“It’s pretty close to being flushed already,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said of Game 3’s outcome. “I feel good with where we’re at.”
If the Phillies can force Game 5, it will send the series back to their Citizens Bank Park.
Aaron Nola pitched the first two innings for Philadelphia before Ranger Suárez came in and allowed one run and five hits in five innings. He struck out four batters and walked one.
“Ranger did a fantastic job,” Schwarber said. “Kept everyone right there for us to eventually crack through and have a beginning.”
The Phillies tacked on five more runs in the eighth — including a solo shot by J.T. Realmuto and a two-run drive by Schwarber — off three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw in his first postseason relief appearance since 2019.
Six of the Phillies’ 12 hits in Game 3 came off Kershaw, who is in the 18th and final season of his MLB career, which has been spent entirely with the Dodgers. Shortly before the end of the regular season, he announced he would retire this year.
“I was battling command,” Kershaw said. “It’s hard when you’re trying to throw strikes in the postseason to get people out.”
Yamamoto retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before the Phillies jumped on him in the fourth. Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm followed Schwarber’s leadoff homer on a 2-0 count with back-to-back singles, and Harper scored on center fielder Andy Pages’ throwing error. It skipped away from third baseman Max Muncy and into the home dugout, moving Bohm to third. He scored on Brandon Marsh’s sacrifice fly to left for a 3-1 lead.
The Phillies chased Yamamoto with back-to-back singles by Bryson Stott and Turner in the fifth.
Anthony Banda came in and worked out of a bases-loaded jam. He struck out Schwarber after a double steal by Stott and Turner. Harper flied out, and Bohm was intentionally walked before Banda got Marsh on a swinging strikeout to end the threat.
The Dodgers led 1-0 on Tommy Edman’s homer on the first pitch by Suárez leading off the third.
The Dodgers had the potential tying runs on first and second in the sixth, but Max Muncy grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Kershaw allowed three runners in the seventh, but none scored. Another left-hander, 89-year-old Dodgers great Sandy Koufax, was on his feet applauding as Kershaw jogged to the mound.
Dodgers sluggers Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman were a combined 0-for-8 with three strikeouts. Mookie Betts tripled and singled in four at-bats.
The scheduled starting pitchers for Thursday are Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who started the series opener, and Los Angeles right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief during Game 1.
Cubs 4, Brewers 3
CHICAGO — Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run single as the fourth-seeded Chicago Cubs avoided a sweep by holding off the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of their NLDS.
Crow-Armstrong’s two-out swing was part of a four-run first inning for Chicago, continuing a wild trend. Michael Busch kicked off the rally by becoming the first player in MLB history with multiple leadoff homers in a single postseason series.
The matchup of NL Central Division rivals is the first postseason series in which both teams scored in the first inning in each of the first three games. Game 4 is Thursday night, also at Wrigley Field.
“Yeah, I’m going to tell our guys it’s the first inning every inning tomorrow,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “I think that’s our best formula right now offensively.”
Jake Bauers rallied Milwaukee with an RBI single in the fourth and a leadoff home run in the seventh. He started at first base in place of Andrew Vaughn, who hit a three-run homer in the Brewers’ 7-3 home win in Game 2 on Monday night.
Milwaukee loaded the bases in the eighth, but Brad Keller escaped the jam when he struck out Bauers on a foul tip on a 97.1 mph fastball. Keller then retired the side in order in the ninth for the save.
“He’s got a great fastball. He got it by me,” Bauers said.
Looking to sweep their way to the franchise’s first trip to the NL Championship Series since 2018, Milwaukee jumped in front in the first.
With runners on first and second with one out, William Contreras hit a mile-high popup that Busch lost in the sun before it landed in the infield for a single. Sal Frelick followed with a sacrifice fly off Jameson Taillon.
Chicago got the run right back when Busch drove a full-count cutter from Quinn Priester deep to right-center field, delighting most of the crowd of 40,737. It was the first baseman’s team-high third homer of the postseason.
Busch said he had to move on right away after the miscue with the popup in the top of the first.
“Just tried to reset,” he said. “It’s a long game and there’s a lot of outs, and just tried to remind myself just to have a good at-bat.”
A single by Nico Hoerner and walks for Kyle Tucker and Ian Happ loaded the bases for Crow-Armstrong, who chased Priester with a liner to right. Happ made it 4-1 when he scampered home on a wild pitch from Nick Mears.
It was a rough homecoming for Priester after a breakout performance this season. The 25-year-old right-hander, who grew up in the Chicago area, lasted just 39 pitches, throwing 21 for strikes.
“Very frustrating. Very frustrated with that first inning, the only inning,” Priester said. “Command wasn’t good. My stuff wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to and ultimately it falls on to me to make an adjustment.”
Taillon surrendered Bauers’ run-scoring single in the fourth, but the veteran right-hander limited the damage when he retired Joey Ortiz on a grounder to third, stranding runners on second and third.
The Brewers went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. The Cubs went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and also stranded seven.
“Oftentimes when you see close games, you look at the runners in scoring position and how successful you were,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Yeah, we didn’t get the big hit. We did hit some balls hard, but credit to them and what they did in the first inning to do just enough to win.”
Both managers declined to announce their starting pitcher for Thursday.
Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta and Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd got the ball for Game 1 on Saturday. Peralta threw 95 pitches while striking out nine batters in 5 2/3 innings. Boyd recorded just two outs in the loss, throwing 21 of his 30 pitches for strikes.