Los Angeles Dodgers barely hold on in the 9th to beat Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 in NLCS Game 1 – Chicago Tribune
MILWAUKEE — Blake Snell allowed a baserunner in eight shutout innings before the Los Angeles bullpen barely held on in the ninth as the Dodgers opened the National League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.
Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang with the bases loaded to end the game.
The Dodgers led 2-0 when they handed the ball to Roki Sasaki in the ninth after Snell threw 103 pitches. Sasaki had worked 5 1/3 scoreless innings while adjusting to a bullpen role in the NL Division Series against Philadelphia, but he wasn’t as sharp Monday.
Isaac Collins drew a one-out walk and Jake Bauers hit a ground-rule double that bounced off the center field wall. Jackson Chourio hit a sacrifice fly that scored Collins and advanced pinch runner Brandon Lockridge to third. Christian Yelich walked a 3-2 pitch down and out.
That’s when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled Sasaki and brought in Treinen.
Yelich stole second to put the potential winning run in scoring position before William Contreras walked on a 3-2 pitch low and away. After Treinen nearly hit Turang with a pitch — which would have tied the game — Turang struck out by hitting a 2-2 fastball to neck height.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching for Los Angeles and Freddy Peralta starting for Milwaukee in an All-Star clash.
This NLCS is a study in contrasts, with the Brewers playing in MLB’s smallest market while the defending World Series champion Dodgers have the most expensive roster in the game.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy referenced the difference in star power between the two teams by joking during his pregame press conference: “I’m sure most of the Dodgers players can’t name eight guys on our roster.”
Despite this, the Brewers swept all six of their regular season games against the Dodgers. All of these games took place in July, when Snell was on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
Snell showed on Monday how much of a difference he can make. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out 10 without walking anyone and allowing just one hit – a leadoff single by Caleb Durbin in the third.
Freddie Freeman broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run in the sixth. Freeman’s dynamism came after the Brewers thwarted a few Los Angeles opportunities, including on a bizarre 8-6-2 double play that was inches away from becoming a Max Muncy grand slam.
Freeman connected on a 3-2 pitch from Chad Patrick and fired a shot so high that it came tantalizingly close to the roof of American Family Field before barely clearing the right-field wall for his first home run of this postseason.
Patrick was coming off a stellar NL Division Series in which he struck out six and allowed no baserunners in 4 2/3 innings against the Chicago Cubs.
The Dodgers added what ended up being a key insurance run in the ninth when Mookie Betts drew a loaded walk from Abner Uribe on a 3-2 away pitch.
Milwaukee stayed close due to Los Angeles’ missed opportunities. The most obvious example came in the fourth period, when the Brewers produced one of the strangest double plays in postseason history.
The bases were loaded when Muncy sent a drive to Quinn Priester who was heading out of the ballpark before Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick reached his glove over the center field wall. The ball came out of Frelick’s glove and hit the top of the fence before he caught it out of the air.
The Los Angeles runners had returned to their original bases, believing that Frelick had made the catch. Frelick threw to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who threw to catcher William Contreras to force Teoscar Hernández out at home. Contreras then raced up to third to throw out Will Smith as well.
Los Angeles also had runners on first and second with one out in the fifth before Betts grounded into a double play. The Dodgers left runners on first and second after Freeman’s homer in the sixth. Freeman hit a one-out double in the eighth, but found himself stranded in the third when Tommy Edman struck out Trevor Megill.
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