Hurling into history after double-play havoc

Snell enters Dodgers playoff lore as L.A. survives near disaster

- BY JACK HARRIS

BLAKE SNELL struck out 10 and faced the minimum number of batters in an eight-inning start Monday night. Said Dave Roberts, “This was pretty special.”

(GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times)

The reason the Milwaukee Brewers are in the National League Championship Series is because of plays such as the one that ended the fourth inning Monday night.

A strange, one-in-a-million, 400-foot double-play in which one Brewers fielder made a spectacular defensive effort, and another never lost awareness of a wacky situation — highlighting the underappreciated skill set and sound fundamentals that made them baseball's winningest team this season.

The reason the Dodgers are here, however, is because of how they can respond to adversity — settling the panic with their dominant starting pitching, rallying at the plate with their star-studded lineup and suffocating an opponent with a record $415-million payroll's worth of talent.

In their 2-1 win in Game 1 of the NLCS at American Family Field, that was ultimately what made the difference.

The evening’s most memorable moment might have been that fourth-inning cluster, when the Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out, only to come up empty when Max Muncy had a potential grand slam robbed (but, crucially, not caught cleanly) and two Dodgers were retired on forceouts at home plate and third base.

But, the most important contributions came after that, with Freddie Freeman's home run in the sixth inning giving the Dodgers the lead, and Blake Snell's scoreless eight-inning, one-hit, 10-strikeout master class ensuring they wouldn't relinquish it — even with some heartburn from the bullpen at the end.

“Obviously, there were some crazy things that happened,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s not going to come easy.”

But, “for us to find a way to get out of that,” Muncy added, “it’s huge.”