MILWAUKEE — On the cusp of an NLCS that features the best team by record (Brewers) vs. the most talented team (Dodgers), Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy painted Los Angeles as a dominant juggernaut and his own club as an anonymous hopeful, at best. His Dodgers counterpart Dave Roberts dismissed those comments as the “act” of an overzealous salesman. Then they played the game, and Murphy’s points, while overdone, held some credence as two Dodgers stars helped the $400M team survive for a 2-1 Game 1 victory.

Murphy told us all that the Dodgers were an uber-talented team filled with megastars, while the Brewers were a bunch of “above average Joes” on a roster so full of unknowns he actually doubted most Dodgers couldn’t name eight Brewers. Murphy talked a very small game, and Roberts called him on it, saying it was a “bit” designed to fire up his troops, an overdone “act.”

Maybe that’s so, but Murphy’s flowery praise for L.A. looked right on some level. The part about the Dodgers stars hit the mark. Dodgers ace Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner, pitched one of the most dominant games in recent postseason memory. Star cleanup man, 2024 World Series hero and future Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman hit a home run in the win.

Snell threw eight innings of one-hit ball with 10 strikeouts and pitched to the minimum number of batters because he picked off Caleb Durbin, who had the lone line single. Snell had four pitches working but sensed the changeup was most effective and emphasized off-speed stuff late.