The Dodgers will try to take a two games to none lead in the National League Championship Series Tuesday in Milwaukee with Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking the mound following one of the best postseason pitching performances by Blake Snell.
Snell became the fourth pitcher in postseason history to face the minimum number of batters through eight innings and first since Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, as the Dodgers defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1, in Game 1 Monday in Milwaukee.
After retiring the side in order in both the first and second innings, Snell allowed a single to Caleb Durbin leading off the third. After striking out Isaac Collins, Snell picked off Durbin, then retired each of the 16 batters he faced before being relieved by Roki Sasaki to start the ninth.
Snell struck out 10 and didn’t walk a batter, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history with at least 10 strikeouts, one or zero hits and zero walks in a start of at least eight innings.
Larsen had seven strikeouts in his perfect game in Game 5 of the World Series on Oct. 8, 1956, in the New York Yankees 2-0 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Dodger manager Dave Roberts called Snell’s performance “as good as I can remember in the postseason against a very gritty team.”
“The change-up was the pitch of the night,” Roberts said. “His command was great. And you’re not going to see too many performances like that, certainly in the postseason. This was pretty special.”
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy: said, “I think it’s the most dominant performance against us.”
Murphy joined the Brewers as a coach in 2016 and became their manager in 2023.
” His change-up and slider were incredible,” Murphy said.
The Dodgers opened the scoring in the sixth when Freddie Freeman hit a 3-2 four-seam fastball from Chad Patrick 362 feet over the right field fence for a home run.
Max Muncy drew a full-count walk leading off the ninth against Abner Uribe, the sixth Milwaukee pitcher. Kiké Hernández followed with a single on an 0-2 slider, one pitch after missing a bunt. Muncy advanced to third and Hernández to second on Andy Pages’ sacrifice bunt.
Murphy opted to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani to load the bases.
Betts walked on a full-count slider, forcing in Muncy.
Sasaki, who had pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings in relief with two saves in two save opportunities in the postseason before Monday, walked Isaac Collins with one out in the ninth, then allowed a ground-rule double by pinch-hitter Jake Bauers.
Jackson Chourio hit a sacrifice fly driving in Collins. Sasaki walked Christian Yelich walked on a full-count splitter, prompting Roberts to replace Sasaki with Blake Treinen, who had a 7.71 ERA in four relief appearances in the 2025 postseason.
.Treinen walked William Contreras to load the bases, then struck out Brice Turang to end the game, giving the Dodgers their first 2025 victory over Milwaukee after losing all six regular-season games between the teams.
“To see Blake come in and close it out was big for his confidence and us going forward,” Roberts said.
Shohei Ohtani was hitless in two at-bats with three walks. He has one hit in his last 20 at-bats with nine strikeouts.
“I thought Shohei’s at-bats were great tonight,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the fourth but did not score. Muncy hit a ball 404 feet that went off the glove of Brewers’ center fielder Sal Frelick and off the fence and bounced back into his glove.
Frelick threw the ball to shortstop Joey Ortiz to Contreras, the Milwaukee catcher, who stepped on the plate for the force out, just ahead of a sliding Teoscar Hernández. Contreras then ran to touch third for the force out on Will Smith, who had remained at second, for the inning-ending double play.
“We go over that rule,” Roberts said. “Teo knows the rule. I think right there he had just a little bit of a brain fart, appreciating that when it does hit the glove you can tag there. But then he tagged, did it correctly, then saw he didn’t catch it, he went back. That was the mistake.
“But he owned it. And after that there’s nothing else you can do about it.”
Patrick (0-1), the third of six Brewer pitchers was charged with the loss.
Treinen was credited with the save.
Since the NLCS moved to its current seven-game format in 1985, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the series 27 of 39 times, 69.2%.
Yamamoto is 1-1 with a 2.53 ERA in two postseason starts in 2025.
Yamamoto was 12-8 with a 2.49 ERA in the regular season, with the Dodgers going 17-13 in his 30 starts. He was selected for the All-Star Game for the first time in his two-season major league career.
In his only career appearance against Milwaukee, Yamamoto allowed five runs (three earned) and four hits in two-thirds of an inning and was charged with the loss in a 9-1 loss at American Family Field July 7.
Fellow right-hander Freddy Peralta will pitch for the Brewers. He is 1-1 with a 4.66 ERA in two postseason starts in 2025.
Peralta was 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA in the regular season. Milwaukee had a 20-13 record in his starts.
Peralta is 4-2 with a 3.29 ERA against the Dodgers, including a 2-0 record and 3.27 ERA in 2025.
Ohtani is 3-for-9 with two home runs and four RBIs against Peralta.
The 5:08 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time game will be televised on TBS, streamed on HBO Max, broadcast in English by KLAC-AM (570) and in Spanish by KTNQ-AM (1020).