Sixty years ago, the only pitcher with a statue at Dodger Stadium delivered the most dominant postseason performance in franchise history.
Sandy Koufax, meet Blake Snell.
With apologies to Orel Hershiser and his classic run in 1988, the three postseason starts put up by Koufax in 1965 practically mirror the three postseason starts put up by Snell so far in 2025.
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Koufax: 24 innings, 13 hits, two runs, five walks, 29 strikeouts.
Snell: 21 innings, six hits, two runs, five walks, 28 strikeouts.
Koufax won the Dodgers a World Series, at a time the World Series was the entire postseason. Hershiser won the Dodgers a World Series at a time the postseason was two rounds.
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For this year’s Dodgers, winning the World Series would require four postseason rounds, which could allow Snell to deliver the most sustained streak of October dominance in the history of a franchise built upon a foundation of pitching.
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Snell shut out the Milwaukee Brewers for eight innings on Monday, the undisputed star as the Dodgers opened the National League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory. If the Dodgers win the World Series, Snell figures to have two or three more starts.
If you are a free agent that wants to play in the postseason and measure yourself against the best, as Snell did, you sign with the team that has made the playoffs 13 years running.
“I wanted to be a Dodger and play on that team,” Snell said. “To be here now, it’s a dream come true.
“I couldn’t wish for anything more. I’m just going to do the best I can to help us win a World Series.”
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There was only one thing Snell failed to do Monday, and the failure was on the Dodgers, not on him. The failure very nearly cost the Dodgers the game.
Sandy Koufax pitches for the Dodgers in Game 2 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins. (Associated Press)
In the 1965 postseason, Koufax pitched two complete games. In 1988, Hershiser pitched three.
Snell could have pitched one Monday. He could have pitched the ninth, he said, but he trusted his manager to make the call.
He is a victim of the modern game. The Dodgers had no complete games this season. In 222 regular season starts, Snell has one — and he had to throw a no-hitter to do it.
On Monday, he faced the minimum 24 batters over eight innings, giving up one hit and then picking off the runner. The last pitcher to face the minimum over eight innings of a postseason game: Don Larsen of the New York Yankees, in his 1956 perfect game.
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Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ manager, called Snell’s outing “the most dominant performance against us” in the 10 years he has coached or managed here.
Milwaukee scored more runs than any NL team besides the Dodgers.
The Brewers are terrific at putting the ball in play — only two NL teams struck out fewer times than Milwaukee — and yet Snell struck out 10. His other 23 outs: 11 ground balls, a fly ball, a foul out, and that pickoff.
No other Dodgers pitcher — not Koufax, not Hershiser, not Clayton Kershaw — has pitched at least eight innings and given up one hit or fewer in a postseason game.
“We’ve all known this: Blake, when he’s right, is the best pitcher in the game,” Kershaw said. “It’s pretty fun to watch.”
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Snell had made 103 pitches through eight innings. His season high was 112. The Dodgers led, 2-0, with the bottom of the Brewers order coming up.
“Tough one for me,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Snell had not pitched into the ninth inning since that no-hitter 14 months ago. The Dodgers plan to use him on regular rest in Game 5 of this series. Roberts summoned the closer of the moment, Roki Sasaki.
“I thought it was 50-50,” Roberts said. “Roki has been throwing the ball really well.”
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Sasaki faced five batters, retired two, and gave up one run. Blake Treinen picked up the save, and so Snell recorded the win.
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The rap that has dogged Snell throughout his career: peerless stuff with erratic control, leading to him too often making 90 to 100 pitches in five innings rather than seven or eight. In 2023, the season in which he won his second Cy Young award, he led the NL in walks.
In the nine regular-season starts since the Dodgers activated him from the injured list in August, Snell made two starts of five innings and 90 pitches. In the other seven starts, he posted a 1.28 earned-run average.
In his past six starts, postseason included, he has pitched at least six innings each time. His record: 5-0, with a 0.68 ERA.
“My last three years, I’ve been pretty consistent,” Snell said, “and I could throw the ball, do what I want with the ball.
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“But the narrative has always been, ‘He’s a wild pitcher, he walks a lot of guys.’ I laugh at it because I know it’s not true. I know that because I’m the one throwing the ball.”
He is throwing the ball as well as he ever has, on the biggest stage, where Dodgers legends are made.
“Postseason, if you dominate and you do great,” Snell said, “no one can say anything.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
