Marina High's Jake Bauers named NLCS MVP as Brewers sweep Dodgers to reach World Series
The 31-year-old first baseman drove in three runs in the 6-4 Game 4 clincher at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, capping a series in which he hit .286 with a home run and six RBIs against the team that swept Milwaukee a year ago.
Jake Bauers, who played at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, was named Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series on Thursday after the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 at Dodger Stadium to complete a four-game sweep and reach the World Series for the first time in 44 years, the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The 31-year-old first baseman began Milwaukee's Game 4 comeback with a two-run double to right off Tyler Glasnow in the fourth inning, cutting a four-run deficit in half, and drew a bases-loaded walk from Alex Vesia in the fifth that forced home the tying run. He drove in three of the Brewers' six runs in the clincher. "There was never a doubt in that dugout what was going to happen tonight," Bauers said, according to the Associated Press.
Bauers hit .286 in the series, going 4 for 14 with a home run, a double, six RBIs, three walks and a .983 OPS, the Associated Press and the Journal Sentinel reported. His biggest swings came in long plate appearances. In Game 2, he worked a 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto that loaded the bases for Christian Yelich, whose two-run single put Milwaukee in front in a 7-4 win. In Game 3 on Wednesday, his two-run home run off Blake Snell capped an 11-pitch at-bat and put the Brewers ahead to stay in a 6-2 win. "Just tried to be ready for the moment," Bauers said, according to the Journal Sentinel, crediting manager Pat Murphy's message about meeting the game halfway.
The sweep reversed last year's NLCS, when the Dodgers swept Milwaukee on the way to a second straight World Series title, both outlets reported. Bauers said watching how Los Angeles carried itself after that sweep stayed with him as motivation through this series. Milwaukee's pennant is the club's first since 1982.
Bauers was born in Newport Beach and attended Marina High School, about 40 miles south of Dodger Stadium, the Associated Press reported. The MVP award capped a career season in his seventh major league year: he set career highs with a .266 batting average, 26 home runs, 86 RBIs and an .874 OPS while earning consistent playing time from Murphy, the Associated Press and the Journal Sentinel reported.
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