Sixty years ago, the only pitcher with a statue at Dodger Stadium delivered the most dominant postseason performance in franchise history.

Sandy Koufax, meet Blake Snell.

With apologies to Orel Hershiser and his classic run in 1988, the three postseason starts put up by Koufax in 1965 practically mirror the three postseason starts put up by Snell so far in 2025.

Koufax: 24 innings, 13 hits, two runs, five walks, 29 strikeouts.

Snell: 21 innings, six hits, two runs, five walks, 28 strikeouts.

Koufax won the Dodgers a World Series, at a time the World Series was the entire postseason. Hershiser won the Dodgers a World Series at a time the postseason was two rounds.

Read more:Blake Snell gem helps Dodgers overcome double-play chaos in NLCS Game 1 win

For this year’s Dodgers, winning the World Series would require four postseason rounds, which could allow Snell to deliver the most sustained streak of October dominance in the history of a franchise built upon a foundation of pitching.

Snell shut out the Milwaukee Brewers for eight innings on Monday, the undisputed star as the Dodgers opened the National League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory. If the Dodgers win the World Series, Snell figures to have two or three more starts.

If you are a free agent that wants to play in the postseason and measure yourself against the best, as Snell did, you sign with the team that has made the playoffs 13 years running.

“I wanted to be a Dodger and play on that team,” Snell said. “To be here now, it’s a dream come true.

“I couldn’t wish for anything more. I’m just going to do the best I can to help us win a World Series.”

There was only one thing Snell failed to do Monday, and the failure was on the Dodgers, not on him. The failure very nearly cost the Dodgers the game.

In the 1965 postseason, Koufax pitched two complete games. In 1988, Hershiser pitched three.

Snell could have pitched one Monday. He could have pitched the ninth, he said, but he trusted his manager to make the call.

He is a victim of the modern game. The Dodgers had no complete games this season. In 222 regular season starts, Snell has one — and he had to throw a no-hitter to do it.

On Monday, he faced the minimum 24 batters over eight innings, giving up one hit and then picking off the runner. The last pitcher to face the minimum over eight innings of a postseason game: Don Larsen of the New York Yankees, in his 1956 perfect game.

Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ manager, called Snell’s outing “the most dominant performance against us” in the 10 years he has coached or managed here.

Milwaukee scored more runs than any NL team besides the Dodgers.

The Brewers are terrific at putting the ball in play — only two NL teams struck out fewer times than Milwaukee — and yet Snell struck out 10. His other 23 outs: 11 ground balls, a fly ball, a foul out, and that pickoff.

No other Dodgers pitcher — not Koufax, not Hershiser, not Clayton Kershaw — has pitched at least eight innings and given up one hit or fewer in a postseason game.

“We’ve all known this: Blake, when he’s right, is the best pitcher in the game,” Kershaw said. “It’s pretty fun to watch.”

Snell had made 103 pitches through eight innings. His season high was 112. The Dodgers led, 2-0, with the bottom of the Brewers order coming up.

“Tough one for me,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Snell had not pitched into the ninth inning since that no-hitter 14 months ago. The Dodgers plan to use him on regular rest in Game 5 of this series. Roberts summoned the closer of the moment, Roki Sasaki.

“I thought it was 50-50,” Roberts said. “Roki has been throwing the ball really well.”

Read more:It took some luck, but good things finally happen to Dodgers' Blake Treinen

Sasaki faced five batters, retired two, and gave up one run. Blake Treinen picked up the save, and so Snell recorded the win.

The rap that has dogged Snell throughout his career: peerless stuff with erratic control, leading to him too often making 90 to 100 pitches in five innings rather than seven or eight. In 2023, the season in which he won his second Cy Young award, he led the NL in walks.

In the nine regular-season starts since the Dodgers activated him from the injured list in August, Snell made two starts of five innings and 90 pitches. In the other seven starts, he posted a 1.28 earned-run average.

In his past six starts, postseason included, he has pitched at least six innings each time. His record: 5-0, with a 0.68 ERA.

“My last three years, I’ve been pretty consistent,” Snell said, “and I could throw the ball, do what I want with the ball.

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers' Game 1 NLCS win shows financial might can make things right

“But the narrative has always been, ‘He’s a wild pitcher, he walks a lot of guys.’ I laugh at it because I know it’s not true. I know that because I’m the one throwing the ball.”

He is throwing the ball as well as he ever has, on the biggest stage, where Dodgers legends are made.

“Postseason, if you dominate and you do great,” Snell said, “no one can say anything.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Blake Treinen’s first save of the postseason was hardly a memorable performance.

He threw more balls than strikes. He walked the first batter he faced and nearly hit the second. And he got the final out on a pitch that was well out of the strike zone.

But he did get the final out, preserving the Dodgers' 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opening game of the National League Championship Series on Monday.

And for Treinen and the bullpen he’s supposed to be anchoring, that counts as major progress.

“We've been putting in a lot of work to try to get some things in a better place with myself,” Treinen said. “Today, I thought I executed almost every pitch.”

The fixes, he said, were simple mechanical tweaks that helped set up his pitches.

“Sometimes through catch-play and touching the mound a little bit, things start to click. And you’re kind of shocked at how a subtle tweak can change everything,” he said.

Read more:Blake Snell gem helps Dodgers overcome double-play chaos in NLCS Game 1 win

In the Dodgers’ World Series run last season, Treinen was as vicious as an ill-tempered Doberman, going 2-0 with three saves, a 2.19 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.

This year, not so much. In his first four playoff appearances more batters got a hit than struck out and five of the 12 men he faced reached base. That followed a disastrous September in which he went 1-5 with a 9.64 ERA.

He wasn’t so much putting out fires as he was starting them. The poor performances began to build on one another.

“At times this year, when it hasn't gone well, th[ings] can speed up a little bit in your mind,” he said. “That's the hard part, to carry the thoughts and focus on what you're good at.”

But manager Dave Roberts, who has had Treinen for the last five seasons, kept giving him chances to turn things around.

“I think the best way to for me to kind of view it is whether you're a position player slumping or a pitcher maybe not getting the outs at the clip that you want, we all know what our abilities are,” Treinen said. “Dave’s seen me at my best and at my worst, and so when he calls my name, I'm grateful that he has confidence in me.

“And I have confidence that he's putting me in situations for the team to win. So there's a lot of peace in that.”

Treinen may have been at peace but he didn’t have much wiggle room when he replaced Roki Sasaki on the mound Monday with two out in the ninth and the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead.

Sasaki, the team’s surprise playoff closer, had been lights out in the postseason, with just one of the 17 hitters he faced reaching base. Against the Brewers, he gave up two walks, a ground-rule double and a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the span of two outs. When Treinen entered, Milwaukee had the tying run on first and the winning run on third — and the right-hander immediately made things worse by walking William Contreras on six pitches to load the bases.

Treinen quickly got ahead of Brice Turang, the Brewers’ left-handed cleanup hitter, but courted disaster again when he sailed a 1-2 sweeper that nearly hit Turang. That would have forced in the tying run had Turang not instinctively danced out of the way, eliciting a groan from the sold-out crowd.

“It’s a natural reaction,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “When the ball is coming towards you, it’s a breaking ball, your natural reaction is to do that.

“It happens. He’ll learn from that situation. But it’s hard.”

For Treinen, whose only luck lately has been bad luck, the break was one he quickly cashed by getting Turang to chase the next pitch, which was head high, to end the game.

That swing brought equal measures of joy and relief for Treinen, who has supplied little of either for the Dodgers this postseason. This time, he said it felt good to finally be able to contribute.

“Our guys have been playing great baseball,” he said. “Our bats are doing a great job. Our starters have been amazing. So [I’m] just doing my job to finish the game.”

He also did his job in picking up Sasaki, the hero of the NL Division Series win over the Phillies, who stood to be the goat if the Dodgers lost Monday.

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers' Game 1 NLCS win shows financial might can make things right

“Any time as a professional, when you have the ability to pick up your teammates, there's a lot of pride in it,” Treinen said. “You just want to do your part because it's a team game.

“I've certainly had guys pick me up this year. To have the opportunity to pick someone else up, it feels good.”

And it’s been a long time since Treinen has felt that.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The disparity in the payrolls was the focus of the series before the first pitch ever delivered, the handiwork of the manager in charge of the small-market franchise that won more regular season games than any team in baseball.

“I’m sure that most Dodgers players can’t name eight guys on our roster,” joked Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers.

If the preceding six months were a testament to how a team can win without superstars, the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series was a display of the firepower that can be purchased with a record-breaking $415-million payroll.

The Dodgers won a game in which a confusing play at the center-field wall resulted in an inning-ending double play that cost them a run — and very likely more.

Read more:Blake Snell gem helps Dodgers overcome double-play chaos in NLCS Game 1 win

They won a game in which they stranded 11 runners.

They won a game in which the Brewers emptied their top-flight bullpen to secure as many favorable matchups as possible.

The Dodgers won because they had a $162-million first baseman in Freddie Freeman, whose sixth-inning solo home run pushed them in front. They won because they had a $182-million starting pitcher in Blake Snell, who pitched eight scoreless innings. They won because they had a $365-million outfielder-turned-shortstop in Mookie Betts, who drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning.

Talent wins.

The Dodgers can buy as much of it as they want.

The visions of the Brewers’ small-ball offense overcoming the absence of a Freeman or a Betts or a Shohei Ohtani?

In retrospect, how cute.

The thinking of how the Brewers’ pitching depth could triumph over the Dodgers’ individual superiority?

In retrospect, how delusional.

The Dodgers absorbed the Brewers’ best collective shot, and they emerged with a victory that won them control of the best-of-seven series.

Their $325-million co-ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, will start Game 2 on Tuesday. Ohtani, their $700-million two-way player, and their $136.5-million No. 4 starter Tyler Glasnow will pitch Games 3 and 4 at Dodger Stadium in some order.

How can the Brewers match that?

Bring on the Seattle Mariners.

Bring on the World Series.

The Brewers’ futile effort to stop the Dodgers on Monday night consisted of them deploying six pitchers in a so-called bullpen game. The assembly line of arms was solid, but Snell was exceptional.

Snell yielded only one baserunner over eighth innings — Caleb Durbin, who singled to lead off the third inning.

Snell picked him off.

Against the team with the lowest chase rate baseball, Snell finished with 10 punchouts.

“This,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “was pretty special.”

Only when the Dodgers turned to their bullpen in the ninth inning were they in any sort of danger, with Roki Sasaki looking gassed after his three-inning relief appearance against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the NL Division Series.

Also of concern was the effect the previous series had on the Dodgers’ most valuable property, Ohtani. In the four games against the Phillies, Ohtani was one for 18 with nine strikeouts.

There was no way of knowing whether Ohtani was out of his mini-slump, as the Brewers elected to challenge him as infrequently as possible.

Facing opener Aaron Ashby, Ohtani drew a walk to start the game. He was walked two other times, both intentionally.

He was hitless in his two other plate appearances, as he flied out to left field in the third inning and grounded out to first base in the seventh. His plate discipline was improved, and his third-inning at-bat against Quinn Priester lasted eight pitches.

“I thought Shohei’s at-bats were great tonight,” Roberts said.

Before the game, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman pushed back against the perceptionthat Ohtani was even slumping, describing how the Phillies pitched to him in borderline historic terms.

“I think it was the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen,” Friedman said.

Perhaps not wanting to create any bulletin-board material for Ohtani, Murphy also described the mini-slump as a reflection of the excellence of Phillies pitchers Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Ranger Suarez.

Read more:Blake Snell's dominant performance carries Dodgers to NLCS Game 1 win over Brewers

“Those guys are really, really good,” Murphy said. “So I don’t consider Ohtani struggling. I don’t.”

Murphy behaved like it, his fear of Ohtani healthy enough to where he walked him intentionally to load the bases in the ninth inning.

The move backfired when Betts walked to push in an insurance run.

Ohtani wasn’t the only big-money player on the team.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.