Blake & Blake bookend the Dodgers to 2025 NLCS game one victory

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 14, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

Game one of the 2025 NLCS was a game that will be talked about forever in both Dodger and Brewer lore.

You had Blake Snell throwing the greatest NLCS game in Dodger history
You had the craziest baserunning blunder by the Dodgers since the 2005 NYM fiasco.
You had Freddie Freeman hit an actual moon scraping fly ball home run
You had Kiké Hernández trying and failing to bunt only to drop a single into right field
You had Blake Treinen close the game with pure luck

Let’s starts with Blake Snell who throw the greatest game of great career. Snell finished his eight innings facing only the minimum 24 batters giving up one hit and quickly erasing that runner by picking him off. He struck out 10, he walked zero. He was fabulous. His game score will tell just how fabulous. These are the best non World Series Postseason Los Angeles Dodger game scores:

                                                                     
Player            GmSc Series Gm       Date Opp Result  IP H ER BB SO
Blake Snell         90   NLCS  1 2025-10-13 MIL  W 2-1 8.0 1  0  0 10
Don Sutton          84   NLCS  1 1974-10-05 PIT  W 3-0 9.0 4  0  1  6
Tommy John          81   NLCS  2 1978-10-05 PHI  W 4-0 9.0 4  0  2  4
Clayton Kershaw     81   NLDS  2 2018-10-05 ATL  W 3-0 8.0 2  0  0  3
Orel Hershiser      80   NLCS  7 1988-10-12 NYM  W 6-0 9.0 5  0  2  5

While Blake Snell does have a higher game score than the 2020 Wildcard game by Clayton Kershaw, I would still rank the Kershaw game above what Snell did yesterday for one large reason. Kershaw did it in a Wild Card format where you lose you go home, while Snell did it in a game one of a best of seven series. Over 50 years ago, Don Sutton shut out the Pirates in the 1974 Game One NLCS when that was the only postseason series before the World Series. Until, last night, that game was greatest NLCS pitched game in the Dodger history, but I think you can safely slide Blake Snell into that number one seat now because the margin of victory was one run, and the Dodgers needed all of those eight near perfect innings to beat the Brewers.

I’m not going to compare any of these games against games pitched in the World Series because the World Series is the World Series. So even though Blake Snell does have the highest game score in Dodger postgame history, I’m not going to pretend that an NLCS game one can be measured against pitching a game seven in 1965 against the Twins, or shutting out the vaunted 1963 Yankee’s.

As a Dodger fan I never thought I’d see a postseason blunder that could compare to two Dodgers being thrown out at home plate against the NYM, but the 2025 Dodgers surprised me and all their fans by doubling down by somehow having a bases loaded ball bounce off the fence and have their runners forced out at both home and 3rd base. Luckily, the Dodgers won this game, unlike the loss to the NYM.

Freddie Freeman got the Dodgers on the board with a high high high fly ball to right field that stayed up in the air long enough for many Dodger fans to chug a whole beer before it landed in the seats to give the Dodgers a 1 – 0 lead.

Kiké Hernández continues to make his case as the greatest LAD postseason hitter. This time it seemed like a very simple single to right field but there was nothing simple about it. Kiké tried to bunt and failed. Twice. Down in the count 0 -2 against one of the better relief pitchers in baseball he somehow managed to punch a single into right field which was the key hit to getting that second run which would turn into the winning margin.

Blake Snell pitched just about a perfect eight innings, but Dave Roberts went to his new closer Roki Sasaki who struggled for the first time in the 2025 postseason. Outside of one hard hit ball by Bauers which might have been caught if the Dodgers had been playing a normal no doubles defense in the 9th he wasn’t really bad. Sasaki appeared to be squeezed on the walk to Collins for ball four but nonetheless, Sasaki departed with two out and two on. I would venture a guess that less than one percent of Dodger fans were happy that Roberts turned to the 2024 Postseason hero Blake Treinen to get that last out. Blake walkd Contreras after getting a head of him 0 – 2 to load the bases. He also got in front of Brice Turang 1 – 2 before throwing ball two right at the back leg of Turang who is now being mimicked all over Los Angeles for kicking his leg out of the way instead of letting his leg give the Brewers a tie game. None of this would have mattered if Brice had then delivered, but instead, Brice swung at a pitch so high, that it would have been a ball even to Aaron Judge.

Of course, this game will only be remembered if the Dodgers win the series, next summer we can get the Dodger Bobblehead showing Brice Turang doing everything he could do to avoid getting hit by a pitch that would have tied a NLCS game one in the bottom of the 9th.

Such is postseason baseball.