LOS ANGELES — For as many ups and downs as the Dodgers weathered during the regular season, they remained secure in their identity as a battle-tested postseason juggernaut. That applies to those who have been around the team for years as well as some of this year’s newcomers.
Blake Snell may be in his first year in Dodger blue, but this isn’t his first go-round under the bright lights of the postseason. He set the tone for his team with seven innings of two-run ball as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 10-5, in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
“It wasnâ€t luck that heâ€s won, what, two Cy Youngs,” Mookie Betts said. “He showed it tonight, essentially put us on his back.â€
As the Dodgers got production from up and down the lineup — highlighted by homers from Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman — Snell thrived in his return to the postseason mound. The reigning World Series champions are one win away from advancing to the NL Division Series against the Phillies. Game 2 of the Wild Card Series is set for 6 p.m. PT at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, airing on ESPN, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto opposing Zack Littell.
“It sets us up really well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Blake was fantastic tonight. You could see he was in complete control.”
The way the Dodgers see it, there’s value in having been here before. There’s nothing like prior experience when it comes to preparing for a deep postseason run.
“As a player,” Hernández said, “you know what to expect, the emotions, the adrenaline and all those things, so you can control [yourself] better and have a better [understanding] of what you need to do just to perform and do good.”
Prior to signing with the Dodgers this past offseason, the last time Snell pitched in the playoffs was 2022, when his Padres made it to the NL Championship Series. But there were no obvious jitters upon his return to this big stage.
Snell struck out nine and worked around four hits and a walk in his longest career postseason start, surpassing his previous high of 5 2/3 innings in Game 1 of the 2020 AL Wild Card Series. He is the first pitcher since Vicente Padilla (2009 NLDS Game 3) to complete at least seven innings in his Dodgers postseason debut.
After six scoreless innings, Snell began to waver a bit in the seventh, giving up a pair of runs on an Elly De La Cruz fielder’s choice and a Tyler Stephenson double. Still, he needed just 91 pitches to complete his outing, the Dodgers’ longest start in the postseason since Jack Flaherty also tossed seven innings in Game 1 of last year’s NLCS.
“It felt good to go deep in the ballgame. Just gotta control that last inning,” Snell said. “But outside of that, I felt really in control, could read swings and just kind of navigate through the lineup the way I wanted to.”
Things got dicey after Snell gave way to the bullpen, which inherited an eight-run lead in the eighth inning. The Reds scored three runs off Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez and Jack Dreyer, who threw a combined 59 pitches — the most in a single postseason inning since pitch counts were first tracked in 1988.
For Roberts, turning to Vesia with that big a lead was an effort to slam the door early. One inning later, the Dodgers’ manager went a different route by calling on Blake Treinen, who struggled in leverage during the regular season.
Treinen responded with a scoreless ninth in which he looked much closer to the lockdown arm who was so key to last postseason’s bullpen.
“All those situations are good for us in the long run,” catcher Ben Rortvedt said. “Those are good things to go through, grow through and learn from.”
The Dodgers don’t see it being as simple as flipping a switch, but there’s something about being back in the postseason that brings out the best in them as a team. They saw it last year, when they barely had the pitching to make a deep run but pulled off a championship anyway.
“I do know we have a group of guys that have experienced the postseason, and we know what it takes to win these games,” Edman said. “We do a good job of slowing the game down, and I think having that experience definitely helps out a lot with guys who are getting locked in at the right time.â€
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