If Game 1 of this series was any indication, this will be a hard-fought series for both teams. Blake Snell threw a great 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 fell just 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 and ended the inning with a strikeout of Freddie Freeman. On the other hand, Blake Snell started what would be a dominant game for him. Two strikeouts started his day in a 1-2-3 first inning.
After Ashby, Quinn Priester entered the game as the bulk pitcher of the day. His first inning went well, working around a Max Muncy walk for a scoreless inning. Snell responded with another scoreless inning and again faced the minimum.
Both pitchers exchanged scoreless innings again in the third. Priester had a 1-2-3 inning, although the Dodgers did give him 21 pitches. Meanwhile, Caleb Durbin had the first goal of the game and opened the third. Unfortunately, he took too big a lead first and was an easy pick-off. He tried to reach second base, but an easy tag took him off base. As a result, Snell worked another inning in which he faced the minimum.
In the fourth inning, Priester had some problems. 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 the pressure on with back-to-back singles from Will Smith and Tommy Edman, loading the bases with just one out.
Muncy was next at the board, and what happened was pure chaos. Priester’s second pitch was in the zone and Muncy hit it to center field. It looked like it had a chance to be a grand slam, but Sal Frelick made a big move to keep it in the park. He only allowed the ball to change direction: it hit the wall and Frelick caught it. Because the ball hit the wall, it was a live ball and not a zero. Frelick threw it to Joey Ortiz, who threw to William Contreras. The Dodgers runners were confused at first, thinking it was a catch on the wall, and arrived too late.
T. Hernández raced home from third, and his slide initially seemed safe since he beat the tag. However, because it was a force out 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 third out of the inning. The referees had to review and confirm the action due to the chaos. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts argued that no call was made when the ball was live, but replay also confirmed that the umpire indicated the ball was live. Suddenly, the Brewers went from inches away from a grand slam to an inning-ending double play.
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 Contreras grounded out to end the inning.
Priester came back 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 done and Jared Koenig warming up, it looked like the Brewers would go to Koenig. Instead, Priester intentionally walked Ohtani to Mookie Betts. The play worked when Betts grounded into a double play to end the inning. Meanwhile, Snell kept rolling with another 1-2-3 inning, yielding yet another strikeout.
After four innings and 58 pitches, Priester’s day was over and manager Pat Murphy brought in Chad Patrick for the sixth. Patrick started with a quick out by T. Hernández. Freeman was the second batter he faced, and once again he had a big moment against the Brewers. After the score was 3-2, he hit a fastball slightly low in the zone over the right field fence. The Dodgers struck first and took a 1-0 lead.
Patrick could not recover from that. Smith followed that with a single, then walked Edman. Murphy called in Koenig to get out of trouble. He stranded the runners on just eight pitches. Muncy flew out and E. Hernández struckout to end the inning.
The Brewers still couldn’t get anything going against Snell, who rolled through three more innings with an eye on the minimum. After allowing the single to Durbin, he retired 17 Brewers in a row. Eight of those seventeen were lost due to strikeouts. The other nine grounded out.
The Brewers bullpen kept the game close for the next few innings. After finishing the sixth, Koenig worked a scoreless seventh to keep the match at 1–0. Trevor Megill got the eighth inning and Freeman looked to do more damage with a one-out double. He advanced to third base on a fly ball to right by Smith, but was stranded there when Megill struckout Edman to end the inning.
With the game still 1-0, Abner Uribe was brought in to keep things exciting in the ninth. He started the inning by walking Muncy. E. Hernández followed that up with a ball hit in shallow left, putting runners on first and second base. After a mound visit, Pages was given a sacrifice bunt. Uribe looked at third base, but had no action, so he threw to first base for the sure out. Ohtani was walked intentionally for the second time of the evening, loading the bases and creating a double play. Uribe started the at bat with three balls to Betts and then filled the count. His 3-2 pitch was well outside, Betts walked and Muncy scored, making it a 2-0 game.
Uribe continued to struggle with two balls thrown to Alex Call before his first strike. Then Call came to Turang for an easy out on the infield fly rule. Freeman got back up with the bases loaded and hit another deep into the outfield, but this one was easy for Frelick to find for the third out.
After eight innings with only one hit allowed, Snell finally came out of the game when the Dodgers handed the ball to Roki Sasaki. After Durbin popped out, Collins walked for the Brewers’ second baserunner of the game. Jake Bauers was called up to pinch-hit for Ortiz. On a full count, Bauers hit one hard to center field, over Pages’ head and jumped the wall with one. Collins would have easily scored had it stayed in the game, but it put runners on second and third base with one out.
Brandon Lockridge ran to Collins as Chourio came to the plate. Chourio hit the first pitch to deep right-center, but Pages caught the ball. Collins and Lockridge tapped and advanced, with Collins scoring to make it a 2-1 game. Yelich kept the rally going, working his hardest to draw a walk and put runners on first and third. That ended Sasaki’s evening. Roberts called up Blake Treinen to face Contreras.
On the second pitch to Contreras, Yelich stole second base, putting 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 next. Treinen almost 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 it 2-1.
There’s not much to say about this other than tip your hat to Snell. He faced the minimum over eight innings, allowing only one hit and striking out ten. The Brewers pitching staff did its best and limited the Dodgers to just two runs. They also escaped a few jams, although some of that was self-inflicted due to a total of eight walks. The biggest was the walk Uribe had with the bases loaded, which gave the Dodgers their winning run.
Game 2 is scheduled for the same time tomorrow. Freddy Peralta is back on the mound for the Brewers and he will face Dodgers’ starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:08 PM CT and will be on TBS and HBO Max, as well as the Brewers Radio Network.
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