The Los Angeles Dodgers took a 1-0 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series behind a historic start from Blake Snell.
The left-hander held the Brewers without a hit until Caleb Durbin’s leadoff single in the third inning, which represented their only baserunner of the night against Snell.
Snell retired the final 17 batters faced and became the first pitcher to face the minimum through eight innings of a postseason start since Don Larsen in 1956.
There was some thought that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts might let Snell return for the ninth inning, but he decided to pull him after 103 pitches with the bigger picture in mind.
“I thought it was a tough one for me,” Roberts said of the decision. “Hadn’t been in the ninth inning, eight ups, potentially going on regular his next outing. I thought it was 50/50. Roki has been throwing the baseball really well, have a two-run lead. I felt good with Roki there.”
Snell had all of his pitches working against the Brewers, but his changeup was especially dominant as he recorded 14 swings and misses.
“He just has an ability to kind of manipulate the changeup within the changeup,” Roberts noted. “And I thought his command, I thought his delivery, he was just sort of in that zone tonight.
“So I saw that early on and had no hesitation obviously running him through six, through seven and through the eighth inning.”
With his impressive outing against the Brewers, Snell improved to 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA and 0.52 WHIP in three postseason starts.
He is scheduled to start a potential Game 5 against the Brewers and could be available out of the bullpen for a winner-take-all matchup if the NLCS reaches that point.
Blake Snell on same page as Dave Roberts
Snell admitted that he probably could have pitched the ninth inning but understood Roberts’ decision to remove him.
“Yeah, I felt I could have,” Snell said. “But I trust Dave. He knows what’s best for the team.”
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