MILWAUKEE (AP) Blake Snell was injured and unavailable to pitch in July when the Los Angeles Dodgers lost all six of their regular-season meetings with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Facing the Brewers for the first time this year in the National League Championship Series, the two-time Cy Young Award winner showed just how much of a difference he can make.
Snell allowed one baserunner in eight shutout innings before Los Angeles’ bullpen barely held on as the Dodgers opened the NLCS with a 2-1 victory Monday night. Brewers manager Pat Murphy called it perhaps the most dominant performance he’s seen by an opposing pitcher in the 10 years he’s been on Milwaukee’s staff.
“It was a masterpiece tonight,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose sixth-inning solo homer broke a scoreless tie.
The 32-year-old Snell struck out 10 and walked none. He’s yielded two runs over 21 innings in his first postseason with the Dodgers after they signed him to a five-year, $182 million contract.
“Even playing against them, watching, it was just always in the back of my mind, like, I wanted to be a Dodger and play on that team,” Snell said. “To be here now, it’s a dream come true. I couldn’t wish for anything more. I’m just going to do the best I can to help us win a World Series.”
Los Angeles’ shaky bullpen nearly wasted Snell’s brilliant effort.
Trailing 2-0 to start the ninth, the Brewers scored a run off rookie Roki Sasaki and later loaded the bases before Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang to end the game.
“That’s kind of what you envision in the playoffs. You’re on the edge of your seat for all nine innings,” Freeman said. “That was a massive first win on the road for us in the NLCS.”
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching for Los Angeles against Freddy Peralta in a matchup of All-Stars.
The Dodgers led 2-0 when they handed the ball to Sasaki in the ninth after Snell had thrown 103 pitches. Snell didn’t try to talk manager Dave Roberts into letting him pitch the ninth.
“I felt I could have,” Snell said. “But I trust Dave. He knows what’s best for the team.”
Sasaki had worked 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the postseason while adjusting to a bullpen role, but he wasn’t nearly as sharp Monday.
Isaac Collins drew a one-out walk and pinch-hitter Jake Bauers smacked a ground-rule double that bounced over the center-field wall. Jackson Chourio hit a sacrifice fly that scored Collins and advanced pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge to third. Christian Yelich walked on a 3-2 pitch low and outside.
That’s when Roberts removed Sasaki and brought in Treinen.
Yelich stole second to move the potential winning run into scoring position before William Contreras walked on a 3-2 pitch low and outside. After Treinen nearly hit Turang in the leg with a pitch – which would have tied the game – Turang struck out swinging at a neck-high fastball.
“You turn your leg, you wear it,” Turang said. “Just like a natural reaction to get out of the way. The last pitch, he’s a big sinker guy. He threw a four-seamer up at the top. That’s just what it is. You move on. As much as it sucks, you move on.”
The save marked a step forward for Treinen, who posted a 9.64 ERA in September and allowed two runs and three hits in one inning during the Division Series against Philadelphia.
“Today was fun,” Treinen said. “I think we’ve been putting in a lot of work to try to get some things in a better place with myself. Today I thought I executed almost every pitch.”
This NLCS is a study in contrasts, with the Brewers playing in MLB’s smallest market while the defending World Series champion Dodgers have the most expensive roster in the game.
Murphy referenced the difference in star power between the two teams by joking during his pregame news conference that “I’m sure that most Dodger players can’t name eight guys on our roster.”
On this night, no star shined brighter than Snell. He allowed only one hit – a leadoff single by Caleb Durbin in the third.
Durbin got picked off, and Snell retired his final 17 batters. He became the first pitcher to face the minimum 24 batters through eight innings in a postseason game since Don Larsen tossed his perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series.
Snell also is the only starter in postseason history to throw eight innings with at least 10 strikeouts, zero walks and no more than one hit allowed.
“When you have a starting rotation like we have that are healthy and feeling good about themselves, it’s going to be tough,” Freeman said.
Freeman put Los Angeles ahead for good when he connected on a full-count pitch from Chad Patrick and sent a shot so high that it got tantalizingly close to the American Family Field roof before barely clearing the right-field wall.
Patrick was coming off an outstanding NL Division Series in which he struck out six and allowed no baserunners over 4 2/3 innings against the Chicago Cubs.
The Dodgers added what ended up being an essential insurance run in the ninth when Mookie Betts drew a bases-loaded walk from Abner Uribe on a 3-2 pitch outside.
Los Angeles also wasted numerous scoring opportunities, most notably on a bizarre 8-6-2 double play that was inches away from becoming a Max Muncy grand slam.
The bases were loaded when Muncy sent a drive off Quinn Priester that was headed out of the ballpark before Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick reached his glove over the center-field wall. The ball popped out of Frelick’s glove and hit the top of the fence before he caught it in the air.
Los Angeles’ runners headed back to their bases, believing Frelick made the catch cleanly. Frelick fired to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed to catcher William Contreras to force out Teoscar Hernández at home. Contreras then jogged to third to force out Will Smith, too.
“It happened fast,” Roberts said. “I didn’t know he didn’t catch it, to be quite honest.”
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