MILWAUKEE — The inevitability of the Dodgers is a concept their opponents would rather not consider. This year’s National League Championship Series pits the defending champs against a Brewers team that not only led the Majors in wins, but that beat the Dodgers six times in six tries during the regular season.
And yet, for all the spunk it took for the Brewers to reach this point and for all the moxie they demonstrated throughout NLCS Game 1 on Monday, it was still the Dodgers who managed a 2-1 victory behind Blake Snell’s eight one-hit innings, Freddie Freeman’s solo homer in the sixth and just enough execution at the end.
“Getting on the road in an environment and taking the first one, it’s huge,” Freeman said. “You can’t understate that at all.”
Particularly not in a game the Brewers could have stolen for their own. Instead, it was the Dodgers who won despite their bases-loaded rally in the fourth inning ending on one of the most bizarre double plays in postseason history. It was the Dodgers who won despite not recording a hit over the first third of the game. It was the Dodgers who won despite Milwaukee’s furious rally in the ninth.
Now, it’s the Dodgers who have the weight of history on their side. Throughout the postseason, teams winning Game 1 in a 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%).
Of course, none of the previous instances included a Game 1 quite like this. At a sold-out American Family Field, offense proved difficult to find until the fourth, when the Dodgers loaded the bases on a walk and two hits. Max Muncy followed with a fly ball to center that Sal Frelick couldn’t quite glove. Instead, the ball glanced off his mitt, hit the wall and wound up back in Frelick’s possession. As various Dodgers puzzled out the situation, Frelick fired home, where William Contreras stepped on the plate and ran to third base for an inning-ending double play.
“Everyone knows who Blake Snell is,” Contreras said. “Everyone knows the job that he’s done.”
“It was a masterpiece tonight,” added Freeman.
In the sixth, Freeman homered off Chad Patrick, the third entrant into Milwaukee’s bullpen game. Los Angeles added an insurance run on a bases-loaded walk in the ninth, which proved crucial when the Brewers rallied off closer Roki Sasaki, loading the bases with two outs before Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang to end things.
For the Brewers, that finish could mean one of two things. Either the ninth-inning rally will prove a harbinger of better things to come — evidence that David can indeed slay Goliath — or it will be a missed opportunity the Brewers come to regret.
Nobody knows yet. Inside a near-silent postgame clubhouse, Turang could only shrug when asked about instinctively dodging an errant Treinen sweeper that nearly resulted in a game-tying hit-by-pitch.
“As much as it sucks, you move on,” Turang said.
The Brewers will do so Tuesday behind their best pitcher, Freddy Peralta, in Game 2. But the Dodgers, who built their expensive roster with October in mind, now have a clear advantage. Behind Snell is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose $325 million contract is worth as much as those of Milwaukee’s top four earners combined.
Yet it’s not just payroll that gives these Dodgers their air of inevitability. Perhaps Snell best encapsulates this team as a pitcher who missed more than half the season with a left shoulder injury, who took his recovery slow with an eye toward October, who rounded into form down the stretch and who now is delivering some of the best performances of his career at the most important time. Last offseason, as Snell decided where to pitch, thoughts of playing with Freeman, Betts and Shohei Ohtani danced around his head.
“The Dodgers are a powerhouse,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said on the eve of Game 1. “What can you say?”
Snell is now among their number, part of a Dodgers team both motivated and uniquely qualified to beat back Milwaukee’s resistance.
“Postseason, if you dominate and you do great, no one can say anything,” was how Snell put it. “And that’s probably the best feeling — you get to prove yourself right.”
