LOS ANGELES — Robert Gasser had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow in the summer of 2024, and on Wednesday night that elbow carried Milwaukee through five scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-time defending champions, at Dodger Stadium. He came out after 72 pitches, 47 of them strikes, with the Dodgers still looking for a run.
Sports Illustrated, and OptaSTATS as relayed by Yahoo Sports, put it in historical terms: no rookie had ever thrown a scoreless postseason start against the reigning champions. Gasser, 27, still counts as one. He allowed three singles, a walk and a hit batter, Shohei Ohtani, and struck out three.
Milwaukee won 6-2 and leads the series 3-0, and the swings that settled Brewers-Dodgers NLCS Game 3 belonged to Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell, back to back in the seventh. But the game was still there to be won because of Gasser. He started ahead of Dustin May in the rotation order, a choice manager Pat Murphy defended before first pitch. “I think he’s proven it,” Murphy said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The outings that he’s put together have been pretty special.”
The road was not smooth. Milwaukee acquired Gasser in the August 2022 trade that sent Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres, and he debuted on May 10, 2024, with six scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals. After five starts he was 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA, MLB.com reported at the time, and then the elbow forced surgery. Yahoo Sports reported he returned to the majors late in 2025.
This season split in two for the Milwaukee Brewers‘ left-hander. Through his first 15 starts he carried a 4.79 ERA and allowed 13 home runs, Sports Illustrated reported; over his last six the ERA was 1.67, and that earned him a postseason rotation spot. His first start this October, against San Diego, ended after four innings and one run, a Fernando Tatis Jr. homer.
The postseason arithmetic depends on who is counting. Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports have nine innings and one run across his two starts, while the Journal Sentinel, in a piece carried by Yahoo Sports, listed 8 1/3 innings and a 1.08 ERA.
Abner Uribe could not protect Milwaukee’s 1-0 lead once Gasser left. Will Smith’s two-run double gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead in the sixth, which lasted until Bauers homered.
Brewers-Dodgers NLCS Game 4 starts tonight at 8 p.m. ET, and a sweep would send Milwaukee to its first World Series since 1982. If the series goes longer, NBC Sports has Gasser as a possible Game 6 or 7 starter or a bullpen arm. The Brewers had announced nothing in the coverage reviewed, and none of it carried Gasser’s own account of the night.
