The video is everywhere: Will Smith appearing to walk past Dave Roberts’ handshake as he returned to the dugout. What the clip doesn’t show is everything around it — a catcher who came into Game 3 with just one hit in his last 25 October at-bats, a .126 OPS in the postseason, and a weight few on this roster were carrying the same way. The Los Angeles Dodgers lost Game 3 of the NLCS 6-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers and now sit in a 0-3 hole that no team has climbed out of in a seven-game series since 1986.
The Slump That Put Smith at the Center of Everything
Smith didn’t walk into Game 3 with momentum. He walked in with that .126 postseason OPS — the kind of number that in October can cost you your spot in the lineup. Roberts dropped him from third to fifth in the batting order for Game 2, though he made clear that sitting Smith in favor of backup Hunter Feduccia wasn’t on the table: «That’s just not going to happen,» the manager told Yahoo Sports before the game.
Smith had tried to defuse the situation himself before Game 2. «It’s five games. Obviously I want better results, but at the end of the day it’s five at-bats. I’m not panicking. I’m going to be fine,» he said, per Yahoo Sports. The problem is that optimism came before another scoreless outing.
Context matters here: Smith missed nearly three months of the 2026 regular season with neck inflammation, which disrupted his timing heading into October. The 31-year-old catcher signed a 10-year, $140 million extension and has been a cornerstone of the franchise’s three consecutive championships in 2020, 2024, and 2025.
The Double Came. The Lead Didn’t Last.
In the sixth inning of Game 3, with the bases loaded, Smith ripped a two-run double to put the Dodgers ahead 2-1 — his first extra-base hit of the entire postseason. The dugout erupted. That moment was captured on video too, right alongside the moment that followed.
The celebration didn’t last long. Blake Snell took the mound in the seventh with a one-run lead and surrendered back-to-back home runs to Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell. Milwaukee took the lead and never looked back: final score, 6-2.
Roberts’ decisions in that stretch — including using Josue De Paula as a pinch hitter before knowing Milwaukee’s pitching change — drew a wave of criticism that hasn’t died down. And the numbers back up the frustration:
- The Dodgers are hitting .175 as a team in the series
- Zero home runs as a team in the series
- Shohei Ohtani is also in a slump
This isn’t a one-player problem or a dugout gesture. It’s a championship-caliber team that can’t hit when it matters most.
0-3: The Number That Says It All
The Dodgers are chasing three straight titles — something no team has done since the New York Yankees‘ run from 1998 to 2000. Instead, they’re staring at a 0-3 series deficit with no team having come back from that spot in a best-of-seven since 1986.
The dugout clip has racked up thousands of views and sparked real debate about whether it was intentional or just a moment lost in the heat of the game. Neither side has confirmed or denied anything.
What is confirmed: the scoreboard, the team batting average, and the series deficit. Those numbers don’t need interpretation.
The Dodgers need to win four straight games to advance. Game 4 will tell us whether this is a crisis — or the beginning of the end of a dynasty.
