The Los Angeles Dodgers took Game 1 of their National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, Oct.
The Los Angeles Dodgers took Game 1 of their National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, Oct. 13, winning 2-1 on the road thanks to a ninth inning insurance run. Los Angeles starting pitcher Blake Snell put together one of the best performances of his playoff career for the second start in a row, holding the Brewers to just one hit through eight innings, and the Dodgers’ bullpen still almost managed to blow the game.
Milwaukee nearly tied the game in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases, but Dodgers’ reliever Blake Treinen hung on to secure the win.
Here are the winners and losers from a wacky Game 1 of the NLCS.
Winner: Blake Snell
Blake Snell pitched with his hair on fire on Monday, striking out ten batters across eight innings and allowing just one hit, a third inning single that he managed to snag in a rundown with a pickoff move.
As such, Snell faced the minimum, needing just 103 pitches to retire the 24 batters he faced. His ERA this postseason now sits at a microscopic 0.86 across 21 innings, with 28 strikeouts in that time.
Although he has two Cy Young awards to his name, Snell has faced criticism in his career for low innings counts, racking up strikeouts but departing after just five or six games. Even though he missed four months of this season due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder, the veteran left-hander has put that narrative to bed this postseason, mowing through batters with ruthless efficiency.
Winner: Quinn Priester
The Brewers went with an opener in Game 1, letting reliever Aaron Ashby face the deadly top of the Dodgers order in the first inning before giving the ball to typical starter Quinn Priester.
The young right-hander, who spent much of his first two MLB seasons shuttling back and forth from the minor leagues, showed his youth in Game 3 of the Brewers’ NLDS showdown with the Cubs, tagged for four earned runs across 39 pitches before leaving the game in the first inning.
Priester deserves a hat tip, then, for his rebound performance, giving the Brewers four quality innings across 58 pitches. He wasn’t perfect, loading the bases in the fourth and putting two aboard in the fifth, but managed two double plays (one admittedly the result of a Dodgers’ gaffe) to keep Los Angeles off the board in a dogfight.
Loser: Brice Turang
The Brewers loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning, putting the tying run just 90 feet away from home plate. That brought second baseman Brice Turang, slashing a miserable .125/.160/.292 with ten strikeouts in 25 plate appearances this postseason, came to the plate.
Facing a 1-2 count, Turang leapt out of the way of an inside pitch that would’ve hit him and plated the tying run, instead taking it for a ball.
He then swung and missed at a fastball well above the zone, striking out to end the game. Trusted to bat in the cleanup spot in Game 1, Turang went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.
Loser: Dodgers’ Baserunning
The Dodgers could’ve scored at least one run in the top of the fourth inning when they loaded the bases against Quinn Priester with one out. Instead, they went to the dugout empty handed because they didn’t know the rules, an inexcusable mental error for multiple players to make on the same play.
Third baseman Max Muncy lifted a fly ball to the warning track that Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick bobbled, allowing it to hit off the wall. Although he gloved the rebound, catching a ball in such a manner doesn’t count as an out. Instead of taking off for home plate, Dodgers baserunners Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández both tagged up as if Muncy had hit a sacrifice fly.
Frelick hurled a throw in to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed on to catcher William Contreras; Contreras stepped on home plate to retire Hernández. He then jogged toward third base in the confusion, stepping on the bag to retire Smith, who strayed away toward the dugout in the mistaken belief the inning had already ended. That saddled Muncy with a GIDP that travelled more than 400 feet in the air. In a game that ended 2-1, the gaffe could’ve cost the Dodgers a win.
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