If Game 1 of this series was any indication, this is going to be a hard-fought series for both teams. Blake Snell pitched an amazing game, but the Brewers kept it close thanks to an incredible double-play and strong pitching from the pitching staff. It ended with a ninth-inning rally, but it just fell short as the Brewers lost Game 1 of the NLCS, 2-1.
Aaron Ashby opened the game for the Brewers. After walking Shohei Ohtani to start the game, Ashby got back on track and looked more like his
normal self. He retired the next three batters, finishing the inning with a strikeout of Freddie Freeman. On the other side, Blake Snell began what would be a dominant game for him. Two strikeouts started his day in a 1-2-3 first inning.
Following Ashby, Quinn Priester entered the game as the bulk pitcher of the day. His first inning went well, working around a walk of Max Muncy for a scoreless inning. Snell responded with another scoreless inning, facing the minimum once again.
Both pitchers traded scoreless innings again in the third. Priester had a 1-2-3 inning, though the Dodgers did work him for 21 pitches. Meanwhile, Caleb Durbin had the first hit of the game to lead off the third. Unfortunately, he took too much of a lead off first and was an easy pick-off. He tried to get to second, but an easy tag took him off the bases. Because of that, Snell worked another inning where he faced the minimum.
The fourth inning was where Priester faced some trouble. Teoscar Hernández led off the inning with a walk. Freeman hit a ball deep to left that looked like it would drop for extra bases, but Isaac Collins made a leaping catch to rob him of a hit. The Dodgers kept up the pressure with back-to-back singles from Will Smith and Tommy Edman, loading the bases with just one out.
Muncy was up next at the plate, and what happened was pure chaos. Priester’s second pitch was up in the zone, and Muncy hammered it to center field. It looked like it had a chance to be a grand slam, but Sal Frelick made a great leap to keep it in the park. He only deflected the ball – it hit off the wall and Frelick caught it. Since it hit off the wall, it was a live ball and not an out. Frelick threw it to Joey Ortiz, who threw to William Contreras. The Dodgers’ runners were confused at first, thinking it was a catch at the wall, and ran late.
T. Hernández ran home from third, and his slide initially looked like he was safe since he beat the tag. However, because it was a force play and Contreras had his foot on the plate, it was an out. Contreras, realizing the play was still active, ran to third base before Smith could react and got the third out of the inning. The umpires had to review the play due to the chaos and confirmed it. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts argued that no call was made on the ball being live, but replay also confirmed that the umpire signaled the ball was live. All of a sudden, the Brewers went from inches away from a grand slam to a double play that ended the inning.
While that could have been a boost for the Brewers, Snell kept the Brewers’ offense in check. After allowing a single to Durbin in the third, he was back in control of the fourth. Facing the top of the order, he struck out Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich, then got Contreras to ground out to end the inning.
Priester came back out for the fifth and allowed a double to Enrique Hernández to start the inning. He responded by getting Andy Pages to ground out for the first out. With Ohtani due up and Jared Koenig warming up, it looked like the Brewers might go to Koenig. Instead, Priester intentionally walked Ohtani to face Mookie Betts. The play worked as Betts grounded into a double play, ending the inning. Meanwhile, Snell kept rolling with another 1-2-3 inning, adding on another strikeout.
After four innings and 58 pitches, Priester’s day was done, and manager Pat Murphy brought in Chad Patrick for the sixth. Patrick started with a quick out of T. Hernández. Freeman was the second batter he saw, and once again, he had a big moment against the Brewers. On a 3-2 count, he hit a fastball that was a little low in the zone out over the right field fence. The Dodgers struck first and had a 1-0 lead.
Patrick couldn’t recover from there. Smith followed that up with a single, then walked Edman. Murphy brought in Koenig to get out of the jam. He would strand the runners on just eight pitches. Muncy flew out and E. Hernández struck out to end the inning.
The Brewers still couldn’t get anything going against Snell, who rolled through three more innings facing the minimum. After allowing the single to Durbin, he retired 17 straight Brewers. Eight of those 17 went down on strikeouts. The other nine grounded out.
The Brewers’ bullpen did keep the game close through the next couple of innings. After finishing the sixth, Koenig worked a scoreless seventh to keep it a 1-0 game. Trevor Megill got the eighth inning, and Freeman looked to do more damage with a one-out double. He reached third on a fly out to right by Smith, but was stranded there as Megill struck out Edman to end the inning.
With the game still 1-0, Abner Uribe was called on to keep it a close game in the ninth. He began the inning by walking Muncy. E. Hernández followed that up with a ball hit into shallow left to put runners at first and second. After a mound visit, Pages got a sacrifice bunt down. Uribe looked at third but didn’t have a play, so he threw to first for the sure out. Ohtani was intentionally walked for the second time of the night to load the bases and set up a double play. Uribe started the at-bat with three balls to Betts, then worked the count full. His 3-2 pitch was far outside, Betts drew the walk, and Muncy scored, making it a 2-0 game.
Uribe continued to struggle with two balls thrown to Alex Call before his first strike. Call then popped up to Turang for an easy out on the infield fly rule. Freeman was up again with the bases loaded and hit another one deep in the outfield, but this one was easy for Frelick to track down for the third out.
After eight innings with just one hit allowed, Snell finally came out of the game as the Dodgers handed it to Roki Sasaki. After Durbin popped out, Collins drew a walk for the Brewers’ second baserunner of the game. Jake Bauers was called on to pinch-hit for Ortiz. On a full count, Bauers hit one hard to center field, over Pages’ head and one-hopped over the wall. Collins would have scored easily if it had stayed in play, but it put runners at second and third with one out.
Brandon Lockridge pinch-ran for Collins as Chourio came up to the plate. Chourio hit the first pitch to deep right-center, but Pages caught it. Collins and Lockridge tagged and advanced, with Collins scoring to make it a 2-1 game. Yelich kept the rally going, working a full count to draw a walk and put runners at first and third. That ended Sasaki’s night. Roberts called on Blake Treinen to face Contreras.
On the second pitch to Contreras, Yelich stole second to put another runner in scoring position. The battle between Contreras and Treinen went to a full count, and Contreras won it by drawing a walk to load the bases. Turang was up next. Treinen nearly hit Turang with a pitch — and would have if Turang hadn’t jumped back. From there, Treinen struck out Turang to end the game. The Brewers’ late rally fell short, and they lost this one 2-1.
There’s not much to say on this one other than to tip your hat to Snell. He faced the minimum over eight innings, only allowed one hit, and struck out ten. The Brewers’ pitching staff did its best, limiting the Dodgers to just two runs. They escaped a few jams as well, though some of that was self-inflicted because of eight walks in total. The big one was the walk that Uribe had with the bases loaded, which gave the Dodgers what would be their winning run.
Game 2 is set for tomorrow at the same time. Freddy Peralta is back on the mound for the Brewers, and he will face Dodgers’ starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. First pitch is set for 7:08 p.m. CT, and it will be on TBS and HBO Max, as well as the Brewers Radio Network.
