By admin 
LOS ANGELES – Once brimming with life, the Dodgers’ historic quest has curled up into a withered heap.
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The three-peat is dying.
The three-peat is slowly, agonizingly having the life squeezed out of it by a collection of hardscrabble Midwesterners with no regard for stardom or status.
After two games of the National League Championship Series, the three-peat was formally placed on life support Monday after the mighty Dodgers lost a second consecutive game to those little giants known as Milwaukee Brewers.
This time the final score was 7-4 after another devastating night at American Family Field, and now the Dodgers trail two-games-to-none in a best-of-seven series that appears beyond their control.
For a second consecutive game, their ace was knocked out. For a second consecutive game, their powerful offense petered out.
For a second consecutive game, they looked like a weary, aging band of fallen stars that had stumbled into a surprisingly deep pothole and had no idea how to climb out.
For the Dodgers to win this series and continue their journey toward a third consecutive championship, they must beat the Brewers in four of the next five games, the last two of which will be played in Milwaukee.
It doesn’t seem likely. It doesn’t even seem possible.
Not once in during their previous two title seasons did they trail anybody two-games- to-none, and they certainly don’t seem equipped to survive it now.
Look at how they lost on Monday. On second thought, don’t look, because what you’ll see bears scant resemblance to the swaggering, self-assured Dodgers of postseasons past.
They pitched their October ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and he’s always saved them, right? Not this time. He couldn’t make it out of the third inning, battered by scattered wildness and scathing swings.
They were handed runs on two errors by the Brewers shaky rookie starter Logan Henderson, and they’ve always capitalized, right? Not this time. They couldn’t make the Brewers pay for their clumsiness, managing just three total hits, the slumps of their superstars ever deepening, Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani now becoming absolute offensive liabilities.
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Even with all this, they sent Henderson packing after four innings and took aim at a heavily used Brewer bullpen and surely they could summon the firepower to send at least one of those relievers running, right? Not this time, as four Brewer relievers set a major-league postseason record by pitching five perfect innings.
The last two innings being a sad microcosm of the previous seven.
Entering the eighth inning, the Dodgers only trailed 4-3 and had the top of their order coming up in what could have still been a trademark Dodger October comeback.
Not so fast.
Facing Abner Uribe, Mookie Betts struck out. Facing Aaron Ashby, Freddie Freeman struck out and Teoscar Hernández grounded out. Yeah, with perhaps their entire season on the line, they couldn’t even get the ball out of the infield.
The Brewers, of course, sealed the deal with two runs on three singles in the bottom of the eighth, and the Dodgers went meekly 1-2-3 in the ninth.
It was surely, truly painful for Dodger fans to witness the final out, a strikeout by … yep, last season’s World Series hero Miguel Rojas.
The three-peat is dying, and it’s almost unbearable to watch.
Having watched both of their top two aces beaten in Milwaukee, the Dodgers will now come home with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow starting in Game 3 and 4.
In any other scenario, both pitchers are aces as well and the Dodgers would have a huge advantage. But neither pitcher has looked great in the postseason and both will be pitching while bearing the weight of a stressed-out Dodger nation..
“Yeah, it’s certainly a challenge,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I think that, if you look Game 3, I like where we’re at as far as in a vacuum, who’s pitching, where our bullpen is at, being at home. Then you’ve got to go from there.”
Roberts still has hope. But he’s not looking past Game 3.
“As far as can we do it, absolutely, but it’s just you want to get that first one,” he said.
Dodger Stadium will be filled with fans in what could be a celebration. Or a wake.
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