MILWAUKEE — Runs were harder to come by than low-fat cheese curds or a vegan bratwurst at American Family Field on Monday night.
While Blake Snell was pitching a brilliant game on one side, the Milwaukee Brewers turned a head-spinning 404-foot double play on the other as the Dodgers and Brewers started their National League Championship Series with a 2-1 Dodgers victory in Game 1.
It was an exhibition of what modern front offices call elite-level run prevention on both sides. The only run in the first eight innings that couldn’t be prevented was a solo home run by Freddie Freeman in the sixth.
The Dodgers didn’t get their first hit of the game until the fourth inning. A leadoff walk of Teoscar Hernandez and back-to-back singles by Will Smith and Tommy Edman loaded the bases with one out for Max Muncy.
That’s when things got confusing.
Muncy drove a fly ball over the wall in center field. Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick jumped and got a glove on it but the ball ricocheted off his glove and the top of the wall, bouncing back into the field of play – where Frelick caught it, thoroughly confusing the three Dodger baserunners.
At third base, Hernandez had tagged up when Muncy hit the fly ball. He left the base when Frelick made his leaping attempt but went back when the ball bounced off the wall and into Frelick’s glove. That delay was enough for the relay throw from shortstop Joey Ortiz to beat Hernandez home, where catcher William Contreras had his foot on the base for a force out.
Smith never tagged up at second on the initial play at the wall then headed back to second base when he thought Frelick had made the catch, waving at Edman (nearly at second base) to go back to first. Contreras trotted down to third base and touched the bag for a double play.
An inning later, Freeman hit his first home run of what had been a 5-for-25 postseason for him up to that point.
Snell needed none of the wackiness and very little help to put up his string of zeroes.
He faced the minimum 24 batters through eight scoreless innings, allowing just one baserunner. Caleb Durbin led off the third inning with a single to center field but was picked off by Snell.
The Dodgers left-hander set the tone early. He threw 14 pitches in the first inning. The Brewers swung and missed at six of them.
In all, the Brewers swung 49 times at Snell’s pitches, missing nearly half (22) of the time on their way to 10 strikeouts. Snell’s changeup was particularly effective, getting 14 of those swing-and-misses.
In three starts this postseason, Snell has allowed just two runs (in the seventh inning of Wild Card Series Game 1 against the Cincinnati Reds) on six hits over 21 innings. The Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Brewers have hit .090 (6 for 67) while striking out 28 times.
Snell was so unpressured that he completed eight innings on 103 pitches, allowing Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to make the pitching change of his dreams, going from Snell to Roki Sasaki for the ninth inning.
Before Sasaki came on, the Dodgers added an insurance run when Brewers reliever Abner Uribe walked Mookie Betts with the bases loaded. That proved critical.
Sasaki had his own issues. He walked Isaac Collins with one out then gave up a ground-rule double to Jake Bauers, the bounce over the wall saving a run. The Brewers cashed that one in on a sacrifice fly by Jackson Chourio. When Sasaki walked Christian Yelich, Roberts went looking for another bullpen hero. Blake Treinen came on and walked William Contreras to load the bases before striking out Brice Turang to end the game.
More to come on this story.
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