Say what you want about Blake Snell. You might not find his style of pitching that uses the strike zone in emergencies interesting, but in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, the Brewers found hitting even more unpleasant. Snell led a Milwaukee lineup that scored 22 points in the NLDS like a knife to end his night with a 17-game winning streak. He faced eight minimum innings with an absolutely dominant performance, helping the Dodgers defeat the Brewers 2-1 and take a 1-0 lead in the NLCS.
Long-term shoulder inflammation has limited Snell to just 11 starts and 61 1/3 innings this season, but he has performed well in those 11 starts with a 2.35 ERA and 2.69 FIP. He performed even better in the postseason, recording wins against the Reds and Phillies, allowing just two runs, five hits and five walks while striking out 18 times. On Monday night, he made those performances look like warm-ups. Snell went eight innings for the second time in his career, finishing with 10 strikeouts, no walks and just one hit. That hit was a weak line hit to center field by third baseman Caleb Durbin in the third inning. Durbin then broke to the second prematurely, allowing Snell to pass to the first and easily catch him at the second. “You’ve got to break it up,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said during the break. “You’ve got to do something. He looked really sharp.” The Brewers did nothing.
It wasn’t surprising to see Snell deal, but what was surprising was that he didn’t walk anyone. The Brewers’ game plan was simple, but execution was difficult. Their chase rate is the lowest in baseball this season and their walk rate is sixth. They need to be patient and force Snell to throw the ball into the zone. The Dodgers want the same thing. “I can’t let him bite me,” Los Angeles coach Dave Roberts said before the game. Snell didn’t bite. His zone field goal percentage was 50%, well above the 44% mark in the regular season and just a smidge lower than the major league average of 51%. It was only the third time in the past two seasons that he had been hit without a ball. His change-up offense is especially devastating, as he shoots 37 percent of his shots in change-ups, the second-highest rate of his entire career. Between innings, he sat on the bench flipping through a half-inch, three-ring binder containing either scouting reports or notes from an AP chemistry midterm exam.
For their part, the Brewers pitched well, but they found themselves struggling repeatedly in the middle innings. Opener Aaron Ashby and loose pitcher Quinn Priest finished the first three innings with two hits and two hits. It appears Priest’s ability to induce ground balls may confuse a Dodgers team with one of the highest fly ball rates in baseball. Roberts disagrees. “The first few innings, I liked our hitters,” he said in an in-game interview. It’s unclear what exactly Roberts likes, aside from the Dodgers striking out just two. To that point, they had two walks, no hits, and a hard hit. But he would soon be proven right.
Priest walked Teoscar Hernandez on four pitches in the fourth inning, and Freddie Freeman nearly made him pay immediately, hitting a deep ball to left field. Isaac Collins, who hadn’t played any left field since Sept. 28, made a great leaping catch before hitting the wall. The tough encounters have just begun. Will Smith singled to center field and Tommy Edman loaded the bases with a single to center field. Max Muncy blasted a 104 mph ball into the deepest part of the field, and it looked like the Dodgers were going to strike first.
Sal Frilick started just eight games in midfield all season, but he nearly went to the wall with a spectacular leap of his own. Instead, he did something better.
The ball bounced out of his glove, off the padding on the wall, and back into his glove. Frilick fired the ball back into the infield, and all runners — it’s unclear whether the ball was a home run or a catch — were still camped out on their respective bases. But it wasn’t a catch or a home run. Hernandez rushed home on a great catch by shortstop Joey Ortiz, but arrived a fraction of a second late. This is a force. Strangely, none of the other runners moved. Edelman remains in second place and Smith remains in third. Not wanting to draw the Dodgers’ attention, Dubin gently waved Contreras to third. Contreras trotted toward base and stepped on the bag. No one was quite sure if he had just completed a double play. Roberts got on the phone. Frilick had knocked his hat off somewhere in the chaos, and he just stood on the warning track, palms in the air, eyes wide open, looking left, then right, and back again looking for someone who could tell him what he had just been involved in:
As he put his hat back on, cameras captured him grinning from ear to ear and asking his teammates: “What the f*ck just happened?” The live call was reviewed and confirmed. This is a classic 404-foot 8-6-2 double:
Priest got the Dodgers out of trouble by hitting the ball harder and harder. He returned to start in the fifth, a risky proposition after the Dodgers beat him in the fourth. Meanwhile, Enrique Hernández greeted him with a leadoff double to left field. Andy Pages struck out to third, and despite lefty Jared Koenig warming up in the bullpen, the Brewers decided to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani, putting runners on first and second so that Priester could stay to face righty Mookie Betts. Murphy said in an in-game interview that the Brewers were hoping to get 85 pitches from Priest and that they desperately needed the length to get the right-hander out of trouble. Betts nearly made him pay, hitting a 94.1 mph ball to the screws but right past second baseman Brice Turang, who jumped to catch the ball and start a 4-6-3 double play. Priest allowed four hard-hit balls in the fourth and fifth innings that resulted in a double and four outs. That would be the end of his night. Priest worked his way through four innings, allowing three hits and three runs while striking out one. The game is still deadlocked at zero.
The Dodgers finally struck in the sixth inning when Freeman connected the head of his bat to Chad Patrick’s low fastball and lifted a high fly ball to right field. Jackson Chourio kept drifting slowly back and it looked like maybe, just maybe, the Brewers would have a third chance to make a leaping catch over the wall, but he ran out of room. He stopped next to the wall and the ball landed a few feet away from him. After allowing five runners on base in the first two innings, the Dodgers opened the scoring with a solo home run:
The Dodgers would get a very useful insurance run on Abner Uribe in the top of the ninth inning. Uribe, who was strong in both the regular season and postseason, walked leadoff Moncey and then allowed a weak single to right field by Enrique Hernandez. Page struck out Muncy and Hernandez to second and third, and the Brewers again intentionally walked Ohtani, bringing Betts to the plate with a single and a single. As the pressure mounted, Uribe lost the strike zone, walked Betts and scored Muncy. The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead, but as is often the case lately, their bullpen made things interesting.
Current Dodgers official closer Raki Sasaki issued a walk to Collins. Jake Bauers pinch-hit for Ortiz and hit a line drive double to center field. This time, the Dodgers bounced back. The ball went over Page’s head, bounced off the warning track and over the fence. If the ball had stayed in the park, Collins would have scored easily and the game would have been tied. The Brewers had one out on second and third and the top of the lineup at home plate. Chourio fired a long shot to midfield and both players caught up. Collins scored. The Brewers trailed 2-1 in the final, but pinch runner Brandon Lockridge hit a tying run to third. Trailing 3-1, Sasaki almost tipped the ball to the backcourt for Lockridge to tie the game, then counterattacked to tie the game. He lost the battle, taking out Yelich and bringing William Contreras to the plate.
Roberts had seen enough from Sasaki and brought Blake Trenin into the game. When you turn to Blake Treinen as solution To wildness. Trenin served up Contreras, who somehow completed a 3-2 sweep that ended up in the outside corner. It was an impressive move that put Turang on base with the bases loaded. Trenin got ahead of Turang and then threw a 1-2 sweeper right at his knees. Turang couldn’t control himself quickly enough to stay there and let the pitch hit him. The 2-2 pitch was a fastball in his eyes and he couldn’t block it. He made a swing error and the Dodgers won the game and took the series lead.
For the Brewers, this is a devastating loss for a number of reasons. Their offense was completely suppressed. With the game so tight, they had no choice but to use the best of their bullpen and ultimately lose the game. Ashby, Uribe, Koenig and Trevor Megill are certain to play in Game 2 on Tuesday night, but they will all have at least one inning, and the Dodgers now have a chance to see them all. The Dodgers can now send Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani to the Brewers, with the Brewers getting Freddy Peralta for Game 2 and more mixing and matching down the road. Walking in victory after intentionally hitting the bases is painful. What’s even more heart-wrenching is that, with Priest in the main role, he nearly pulled off a victory, but ultimately fell short.
In the visitors’ dugout, the Dodgers seemed to be getting back into gear at just the right moment. Enrique Hernandez returned to full strength in the playoffs and went 2-for-4 from the field. Freeman and Smith each had two hits, and Ohtani added three base hits, two of which were intentional. Although Sasaki struggled in Game 1, he found his role and the rest of the bullpen looked fresh. The Dodgers got Ohtani back on the mound after Tommy John surgery, and Glasnow and Snell also battled injuries. All three shot like aces. The series is far from over, but with home-field advantage negated and four more top-notch starters on the bench, Los Angeles is already in the driver’s seat.
