Archer Dodgers begin draining life from opposing mobs

milwaukee — First things first: The fans in the outdoor stadium in Philadelphia are louder than the fans in the indoor stadium in Milwaukee. No contest.

They are really respectful and nice here. They booed Shohei Ohtani, but half-heartedly, almost out of obligation. In Philadelphia, they booed Ohtani relentlessly and aggressively.

But here’s the thing: It didn’t matter, because the Dodgers silenced the enemy horde wherever they went in October. The Dodgers are undefeated on the road this season: 2-0 in Philadelphia, now 2-0 in Milwaukee.

The Dodgers deployed four silencers. In the dramatic tradition it is known for famine, pestilence, devastation and death. These are just nicknames. Their real names are Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and Ohtani.

“It’s amazing,” Tyler Glasnow said. “It’s like a show every time you’re out there.”

The Dodgers won the World Series last year with home runs, bullpen bullpen and New York Yankees bullpen, but not with starting pitching. In 16 games last October, the Dodgers had more bullpen runs (four) than quality starts (two), and starters posted an earned run average of 5.25.

In eight games last October, the Dodgers hit seven home runs, and it’s no coincidence that they went 7-1. The starters posted a 1.54 ERA, the lowest for any team in National League history to play at least eight postseason games.

“Our start to pitching this entire season has been unbelievable,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. “We knew it would be a strength, but this is beyond what we could have reasonably expected.

“There are a lot of different ways to win in the postseason, but this is definitely a better quality of life way to do it.”

The greats of the sport say that momentum is the launching pad for the next day. In a sport where most teams struggle to determine even a single serve, the Dodgers boast four aces.

In the past three games — the playoff game against the Phillies and the two here against the Brewers — the Dodgers have never trailed even a full inning.

In the clincher of the division series, the Phillies scored one run in the top of the inning, but the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning.

On Monday, the Brewers never led. On Tuesday, the Brewers hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning, but the Dodgers scored twice in the top of the second.

On Monday, when Blake Snell pitched eight shutout innings, the Brewers went 0-for-1 with men in scoring position — and that batter was their last out of the game. On Tuesday, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a complete game, the Brewers didn’t get any runners in scoring position.

This is momentum. This is also how you silence an opposing crowd: limiting their team’s momentum.

“I think with what we did in Philadelphia and coming here, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of momentum,” Glasnow said.

Of the four players, Glasnow and Ohtani were unavailable to play last fall while rehabbing injuries, and Snell was playing for the San Francisco Giants.

In the 2021 NLCS, the Dodgers started Walker Buehler twice, Julio Urias and Max Scherzer, and openers Joe Kelly and Corey Knebel once each. Scherzer was unable to make his second scheduled start due to injury.

“We’ve had some really good pitchers in the past, but at some point we hit a roadblock during the postseason,” defensive lineman Kike Hernandez said. “To be consistent like that for seven or eight games now, it’s been very impressive. In a way, it made things a little easier in the lineup.”

In the wild card round, the Dodgers scored 18 runs in two games against the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, they have 20 runs in six games.

“We said before the postseason started that our starting pitching was going to be the one that would carry us,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And so far it has been exactly that.”

The starters came into their own in the final weeks of the regular season — their ERA is 1.49 over the last 30 games — and Hernandez couldn’t care less about that now.

“The regular season doesn’t matter,” he said. “We can win 300 games in the regular season.

“If we don’t win the World Series, it doesn’t matter.”

The Dodgers are two wins away from a return trip to the World Series. If they can get those two wins over the next three games, they won’t have to return to Milwaukee, land of the great hot dog race and polka dancers above the dugout.

There may not be another game here this season. They’re good-natured, lively fans, even if they’re not as loud as the Philly Phanatics.

“This is the highest place I’ve ever been,” Glasnow said.