Dodgers escape Brewers 2-1 on Snell gem; Mariners grab 2-0 ALCS lead over Blue Jays

Blake Snell allowed one baserunner in eight shutout innings before Los Angeles’ bullpen barely held on as the Dodgers opened the NLCS with a 2-1 victory Monday night. 

The two-time Cy Young winner struck out 10 and walked none. Snell retired his final 17 batters. He became the first pitcher to face the minimum 24 batters through eight innings in a postseason game since Don Larsen tossed his perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series.

He’s yielded two runs over 21 innings in his first postseason with the Dodgers after they signed him to a five-year, $182 million contract.

However, Los Angeles’ shaky bullpen nearly wasted Snell’s brilliant effort. Trailing 2-0 to start the ninth, the Brewers scored a run off rookie Roki Sasaki and later loaded the bases before Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang to end the game.

Freeman put Los Angeles ahead for good when he connected on a full-count pitch from Chad Patrick and sent a shot so high that it got tantalizingly close to the American Family Field roof before barely clearing the right-field wall.

Los Angeles also wasted numerous scoring opportunities, most notably on a bizarre 8-6-2 double play that was inches away from becoming a Max Muncy grand slam.

The bases were loaded when Muncy sent a drive off Quinn Priester that was headed out of the ballpark before Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick reached his glove over the center-field wall. The ball popped out of Frelick’s glove and hit the top of the fence before he caught it in the air.

Los Angeles’ runners headed back to their bases, believing Frelick made the catch cleanly. Frelick fired to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed to catcher William Contreras to force out Teoscar Hernández at home. Contreras then jogged to third to force out Will Smith, too.


Meanwhile in the American League, the surging Seattle Mariners moved two wins away from the team’s first World Series.

Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodríguez hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Mariners took a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday.

Seattle, the only big league team never to host a World Series game, is headed home for Wednesday’s Game 3 halfway to clinching this best-of-seven series and ending a drought for a team that started play in 1977.



(AP Photos Brynn Anderson; Frank Gunny/The Canadian Press)