This is why AF/BG signed Blake Snell. 8.0 innings, 1 hit, NO walks, 10 K, 103 pitches. With the way Roki Sasaki has been pitching in relief, I had no reservations with calling him in to pitch to the bottom of the order to close it out.
Unfortunately, his 100 MPH 4-seamer was not there tonight. Roki got the first out on a pop out. Ball 4 to Isaac Collins was a strike, and had been called a strike against the Dodgers all night. The double he gave up to Jake Bauers was a 97.2 MPH 4-seamer, almost middle middle. His pitch to Jackson Chourio was 98.5 and very hittable. He threw one pitch that was a strike to Christian Yelich. Yelich swung at 2 pitches well out of the zone, but still drew a BB.
That was it for Sasaki, and Doc brought in Blake Treinen to try and close it out. He walked William Contreras to load the bases for Brice Turang. Turang swung at strike 3 well out of the zone. He would not need to have thrown it if the umpire had called his 2nd pitch a strike as he has against LAD hitters.
A fantastic ending to a fantastic game. The Dodgers won the WS in 2024 largely due to the bullpen. Even in a game dominated by Blake Snell, the bullpen had problems shutting down the opponent. It looks like they are going to need to overcome their bullpen this year.
The Dodgers scored two. The first was on a Freddie HR, his 1st of the post season. The second is almost a replay of Game 4 against Philadelphia. Max Muncy opened the inning with a walk, and October Kiké followed with a single. Andy Pages squared and hit his first MLB sacrifice bunt, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd against the Brewers closer, Abner Uribe. Uribe IBB Shohei to get to Mookie. As he did against Jhoan Duran in the NLDS Game 4, Mookie worked a run scoring BB.
While the Dodgers did win it, and the bullpen made it far too exciting, it did not need to be. The Dodgers were 1-10 wRISP. The one hit was a single to CF by Tommy Edman that Teoscar got a horrible read on and could only reach 3rd. That set up the weirdest play I have ever seen.
With the bases loaded, Max Muncy hit a long fly ball to Sal Frelick in CF that hit off his glove and hit the top of the wall. Frelick caught the ball off the wall and confusion set in for Teoscar and Will Smith. It did not need to. The LF umpire clearly signaled the ball was not caught. Teoscar did not need to think about it as Dino told him to go. And I have no idea what Smith saw.
Snell was so dominant. 8 innings pitched and he pitched to the minimum (24 batters). He got 22 swings and misses. On the only single he allowed, he then picked off Caleb Durbin, and set down the next 17 batters in order. Could he have pitched the 9th? Undoubtedly. But the Dodgers have to find out how to close out close games with their bullpen.
Snell now has started three games in the playoffs and has won all three. He has pitched 21 innings in those starts. He has allowed 2 runs in those 21 innings for a 0.86 ERA. He has allowed 6 hits and 5 BB for a post season WHIP of 0.52. His batting average against is .090. He has shutout 2 of the best offenses in MLB, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, in his last two post season starts. Over those last two playoff starts, Blake Snell has thrown 14 innings, allowed two hits and struck out 19. He made the Phillies (eighth in MLB in runs scored) and Brewers (third) look positively feckless. I am not sure how much more dominant he could be.
Per Sarah Langs, Blake Snell is the first pitcher in postseason history with 10+ strikeouts, 1 or no hits and no walks in an outing of 8+ innings.
The visiting team always looks for a split in the first two games in the opponent’s yard in the playoffs. They got the first win in Philadelphia and followed that up with a win in Game 2. In the NLCS Game 2, the Dodgers will be sending out Yoshinobu Yamamoto who had a stinker in Game 3 vs Philadelphia. Last year he had a bad start in the NLDS against SDP, and followed that with a gem in Game 5 and a win over Yu Darvish.
I am feeling rather confident that Yama will have his “A” game ready for Game 2. The Brewers will be sending out their Ace, Freddie Peralta. Freddie has not had a particularly good post season, but he is very capable of shutting down LAD. I think LAD comes home 2-0.
I would really appreciate seeing Andy Pages run to a ball like Isaac Collins and Sal Frelick did in this game. I have no idea if Frelick catches the Jake Bauers double, but he would at least have put in a true effort.
Isaac Collins catch in LF.
Sal Frelick on play in CF
No, I am not a fan of Andy Pages. I will not lose any sleep if Pages is traded to get a legit CF for 2026.
I was at the Bears at Commanders game in Dc tonight, which started about 10 min after the Dodger game did. So for the entire Bears game, I had my earbuds in and listened to Steven Nelson and Rick Monday call the Dodger game. The Dodgers won with about 4 min left in the Bears game, so I finally got to take my earbuds out and pay more attention to the football game. That was a very nerve wracking 20 min!
I’m not sure I have any desire to actually watch that Muncy almost grand slam turned double play. The call on the radio was stunning to hear and not sure I want to actually watch a replay of us looking foolish on the basepaths.
My instant thought went to 2006 when Kent and someone else were thrown at at home on the same play in the playoffs. This one sounded worse.
I was actually hoping Blake Snell would come out for the 9th, especially at only 103 pitches and with the bottom of their order coming up. From the sounds of it, he was filthy, and was still filthy in the 8th, so in my mind he deserved a shot at an all time historic playoff game. He had a nice paid vacation for 2-3 months, so his arm is completely fresh.
The Dodgers dodged a bullet here. A bullet fired by Dave Roberts.
There was simply no reason to pull Snell after 8 absolutely brilliant innings. No reason not to let him go for the complete game.
He was dominating, and his pitch count wasn’t that high–a few over 100. He was not tiring, not complaining about a sore elbow. Since when did the Dodgers adopt their own “no complete games” rule?
And the Brewers were feeling dominated…. until Roberts put in a reliever. The Brewers had some reason to feel a bit of hope.
Take out a top-flite starter who is on top of his game–a one-hitter, with zero walks and 10 Ks– and there’s a 99% chance the reliever won’t be as good. Sasaki, for all the plaudits he’s received recently, is still relatively inexperience. He was sharp, and he appeared to lack confidence while the Brewers surged.
Not Sasaki’s fault.
This was on Roberts.
Fortunately, the Dodgers won. But the Brewers’ rally gives them hope going forward, while Sasaki, who wears his heart on his sleeve, seems a bit shaken.
I thought the point of getting all the marquee starters ready for the post-season was to let them pitch plenty of innings and lead the Dodgers to victory. If Yamamoto or Shohei or Glasnow are dominating, Roberts should be careful about calling the bullpen.
I tend to agree with that. Snell was completely dominant and at 103 pitches could easily have pitched the 9th inning. When you have a team “on the ropes” in game 1 of a playoff road game, go get the W and worry about next week later.
As good as Roki looked against the Phillies, he’s still in a relative new role and if his mechanics are slightly off it seems he loses a little velocity and movement on his FB and splitter. It would have been good to keep him in the pen and let the Brewers see less of him while Snell was pitching so well and was still strong with no indication he was tiring.
Turang gave the Dodgers a gift by getting out of the way of an inside Treinen pitch and then swung at a pitch clearly out of the strike zone. Roki was “pinched” by the HPU and seemed to get a strikeout on a close 3-2 pitch to Collins only to be called ball 4. If that strikeout is called we’re reading about how Roki looked terrific.
Hoping Yama is strong tonight. In July, Yama had his shortest start since he’s pitched for the Dodgers. Against the Brewers he lasted just 2/3 of an inning, giving up 5 runs on 41 pitches, 2 BB and 0 K’s.
Go Dodgers!
“Ball 4 to Isaac Collins was a strike, and had been called a strike against the Dodgers all night”
And once again an umpire’s missed call had bearing on a game.
I had no problem with Roberts decision to bring in the closer. I did expect to see Snell come out for the 9th as he was cruising but we do want him for a few more starts and the 100 pitch mark seems to be something of an established ceiling so seeing a closer for the finish wasn’t really a surprise for me.
The game could have turned with the boneheaded base running of Hernandez and Smith, but it didn’t. And Treinen did walk Turang but got him to swing at ball 4. The team was 7 for 31 (8 BB), 1 for 10 WRISP The baseball gods were on the Dodgers side last night. I don’t expect them to be as generous going forward.