MILWAUKEE -- When Blake Snell is on, his teammates tend to describe him as such: He knows what he wants to do on the mound, and he makes it happen.
He certainly seemed to have the Brewers exactly where he wanted them in a dominant performance on Monday night at American Family Field.
Snell carved up the Brewers across a postseason career-high eight innings, facing the minimum before the bullpen closed things out in the Dodgers' 2-1 win in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. Snell struck out 10 without walking a batter. He allowed just one baserunner when Caleb Durbin singled in the third, but he was picked off shortly afterward.
When was the last time Snell felt that locked in from beginning to end?
"The no-hitter, yeah," he said, referring to his Aug. 2, 2024 gem against the Reds while with the Giants. "I feel like the whole postseason I've been pretty locked in, pretty consistent."
The Brewers have established themselves as a team that looks for every opportunity to wreak havoc when they're on base. Snell nullified that quality by nearly keeping them off the basepaths all together.
Had his teammates seen a postseason pitching performance this dominant?
"I can't think of one that was just, off the top of my head, that was just so good from the start," said Freddie Freeman, who opened the scoring with a solo homer in the sixth. "Sometimes it takes an inning or two for someone to settle in. It was from the get-go."
"Off the top of my head, probably not," Mookie Betts said. "You hardly ever see that."
Betts’ inclination was correct. Consider this:
- Snell became the first Dodger to toss eight scoreless innings in a postseason game since Clayton Kershaw in Game 2 of the 2020 NL Wild Card Series … against the Brewers.
- He is the first Major Leaguer to face the minimum through eight innings of a postseason game since Don Larsen in his 1956 perfect game.
- He became the first pitcher in postseason history with 10 or more strikeouts, one or no hits and no walks in an outing of at least eight innings.
- He is the first pitcher in postseason history with multiple outings of six-plus innings and one or no hits allowed in a single postseason; only three other pitchers have two such postseason outings in their career (Zack Wheeler, Max Scherzer, Aníbal Sánchez).
"I think it's the most dominant performance against us," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "I've been here 10 years. … The kid was amazing."
Snell had to watch from afar as his team was swept by the Brewers in six games in July while he was sidelined with left shoulder inflammation. Three months later, he was able to lead the Dodgers to their first win over the Crew this year. Historically speaking, it puts them in good company.
In postseason history, teams winning Game 1 in any best-of-seven series have gone on to take that series 126 of 194 times (64.9%). In series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams winning Game 1 on the road have gone on to take that series 40 of 71 times (56.3%).
While Snell put up zeroes all night long, his most impactful moment may have been his shutdown inning after the Dodgers were on the wrong side of a wild double play in the fourth inning. After his team came away empty-handed from the one-out, bases-loaded opportunity, Snell vanquished the Brewers' top three hitters in quick succession to get L.A. back to the plate.
"For him to go out there and just shut it down, 1-2-3, real easy," Max Muncy said, "is definitely huge to kind of sway the game back to the middle a little bit."
Snell had his stuff working so well that he caused some uncharacteristic behavior from his opponents. He became only the fifth starter to strike out 10 or more Brewers this year. He induced 22 swing-and-misses, including an astounding 14 on his changeup. He pounded the zone, landing 69 of his 103 pitches for strikes.
A pitcher who prides himself on reading his opponents' swings, Snell ended up throwing his changeup more than any other pitch, 37% of the time. In the regular season, he was far more fastball-dominant (43.6%), while the changeup was his top secondary offering (23.6%).
"I pitch off of what they're telling me," Snell said. "So I just felt like they were really aggressive to a certain pitch, and it seemed to be that way. So I threw differently. But the next time I face them, if they're more aggressive to other things, then I'll throw the fastball more."
He was so effective that manager Dave Roberts was considering sending him out to finish the job. But Snell got handshakes after leaving the mound in the eighth, and while the Brewers threatened in the ninth, the Dodgers ultimately closed it out to get Snell a well-deserved win.
"This is as good as I can remember in the postseason, against a very gritty team," Roberts said. "... You're not going to see too many performances like that, certainly in the postseason. This was pretty special."