LOS ANGELES —

Milwaukee shortstop Orlando Arcia belted his third home run of this post-season Monday, a two-run shot that lifted the Brewers to a 4-0 victory over the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

The victory gave the Brewers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, with Games 4 and 5 coming up in California Tuesday and Wednesday.

The winner of the series will take on either the reigning champion Houston Astros or the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Venezuela’s Arcia, who had just three homers in 119 regular-season games, matched that total in these playoffs when he lofted a fastball from Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler into the right field seats, doubling Milwaukee’s lead to 4-0 in the seventh inning.

It was the second homer in as many games for Arcia, who was demoted in July after struggling at the plate in the first half of the season.

“Every player is going to have their ups and downs, and this year was definitely a lot of downs for me,” he said. “I was able to work on stuff, recognize pitches, and especially breaking balls. And now I do my adjustments and things have been working better and now we’re up here in the playoffs.”

Four runs was plenty of support for Brewers starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, who threw 5 1/3 shutout innings and has yet to allow a run in the post-season.

“Jhoulys was just outstanding tonight,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell after Chacin scattered three hits and struck out six. “He made big pitches.”

Milwaukee seized the initiative in the first inning, when their Most Valuable Player candidate Christian Yelich walked and then scored from first base on Ryan Braun’s double to left field.

The Brewers put their second run on the board in the sixth inning, aided by some shoddy defense from the Dodgers.

Travis Shaw belted a fly to deep center and Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger was late for the catch at the wall and Shaw had a triple.

A Buehler curveball to the next batter, Jesus Aguilar, bounced in front of the plate and got away from catcher Yasmani Grandal and rolled away, allowing Shaw to score.

“I thought he couldn’t command his curveball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Buehler.

The Dodgers offense sputtered, too.

In the bottom of the fourth the Dodgers were on the wrong end of a review when officials ruled Manny Machado had made unnecessary contact with Arcia when he raised his arms sliding into second base.

“He grabbed my knee toward the end, that’s when I turned around and said something to the umpire,” Arcia said. “And I looked over to the dugout and thankfully in the dugout they noticed, and some guys on the video room noticed it, too, and challenged it.”

Instead of Bellinger beating the throw, he was out as part of a double play and the inning ended one batter later on Yasiel Puig’s ground out.

The Dodgers, trying to book a return trip to the World Series after falling to the Astros in seven games last season, twice loaded the bases but were unable to score.

That included in the ninth inning, when Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress gave up a leadoff single to Justin Turner, who advanced to third on Manny Machado’s double.

Jeffress induced a fly out from Bellinger, but walked Puig to load the bases. That brought up Grandal, who struck out on three pitches and exited to boos before Jeffress struck out pinch hitter Brian Dozier to end the game.

“I think we were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position,” Roberts said. “And one part of it is creating scoring opportunities. We had a second and third, one out. We had a lead-off double. And we couldn’t push them across.” — AFP