Blake Snell turned in another dominant performance and the Los Angeles Dodgers mustered just enough offense in a 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
Coming off six scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, Snell again rose to the occasion in a road environment. He held the Brewers without a hit until Caleb Durbin’s leadoff single in the third inning, and that was their lone baserunner of the night against him.
Snell relied one a steady dose of changeups and fastballs, and mixed in enough curveballs to keep the Brewers off balance and collect 10 strikeouts over his eight shutout innings. The outing was Snell’s longest of his postseason career.
“The other kid is pretty good, the lefty. What’s his name? Shell? Snell. I’m joking, of course,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said on Sunday. “I’ve been very disappointed when he’s pitched and I’m in the stadium. He’s really good.”
Snell became the first pitcher to face the minimum through eight innings of a postseason start since Don Larsen in 1956, when he threw a perfect game. Snell retired the final 17 batters faced.
The Dodgers needed every bit of Snell’s brilliance as they didn’t break through until Freddie Freeman’s home run in the sixth inning. Though, they came close in the fourth and would have taken a lead at that point if not for a spectacular effort by Sal Frelick and mass confusion from the Dodgers on the basepaths.
Frelick not only robbed Muncy of a grand slam, but his attempt at a leaping catch turned into a 404-foot inning-ending double play.
Prior to Freeman’s homer, the Brewers were successfully navigating a bullpen game started by Aaron Ashby as the opener. Quinn Priester worked around three hits and three walks to provide four scoreless innings in a bulk role.
The Brewers used six pitchers to get through the game. Among them was Abner Uribe, who walked Mookie Betts with the bases loaded to gift the Dodgers a run in the ninth inning that proved to be the difference.
Roki Sasaki followed Snell in the bottom of ninth and issued a one-out walk that was followed by a ground-rule double. Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly prevented the Brewers from being shut out. Sasaki walked a second batter and was replaced by Blake Treinen.
He walked the first batter faced to load the bases before converting the save to narrowly prevent the Dodgers from collapsing. The final at-bat included Treinen nearly hitting Brice Turang with a pitch.
Dodgers confused by Brewers turning grand slam into double play
Muncy’s drive to deep center field initially hit off Frelick’s glove and ricocheted off the top of the wall. It came back to graze Frelick’s glove again, and he recovered to make a basket catch.
Frelick then threw the ball into a cutoff man, who relayed to William Contreras to beat Teoscar Hernández for an out at home plate. Contreras then jogged over to third base and stepped on the bag to complete a double play.
Per the MLB rulebook, once the ball touches the fielder’s glove, the runner can advance, regardless of whether he bobbles it before making the catch. Hernández initially did tag off third base, but retreated to touch it a second time upon seeing Frelick juggle the ball.
Likewise, Will Smith mistakingly went back to second base and motioned for Tommy Edman to return to first base.
The play was reminiscent of one the Dodgers were involved in against the New York Mets on May 23.
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