The Los Angeles Dodgers sent pitcher Blake Snell to the mound for Game 1 of the National League wild card series against the Cincinnati Reds and he absolutely delivered.
The Dodgers jumped on the board early with a Shohei Ohtani leadoff home run and then added four more runs in the third inning to lead 5-0, and give Snell plenty of wriggle room.
However, the Dodgers' starter didn't need much wriggle room. Snell delivered a sparkling seven innings. He gave up just two runs on four hits and a walk, and struck out nine batters. He also did something on Tuesday night that he's never done in his career.
Blake Snell Makes Career History
Snell has pitched in the postseason four separate times, with the Tampa Bay Rays twice, the San Diego Padres in 2022 and now the Dodgers in 2025.
The 10th year veteran has always shown up in the postseason, delivering a 3.23 ERA in his postseason career across 55.2 innings and he has 70 strikeouts.
However, none of Snell's previous playoff starts lasted as long as he did on Tuesday night. The star pitcher's previous longest postseason outing was in 2020 against the Toronto Blue Jays when he delivered 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball.
Blake Snell completes his longest career postseason start with nine strikeouts in Game 1 💥 pic.twitter.com/f56l5VkzoE
— ESPN (@espn) October 1, 2025
On Tuesday night against the Reds, Snell not only beat that, but he delivered another entire inning in the seventh. The Dodgers' starter pitched seven innings in the postseason for the first time in his career, and did so in his first postseason start with the Dodgers.
"This is why I came here, for postseason baseball when the stakes are the highest they're going to be, and see how great I can be. That's really everything to me," Snell said. "So, coming here and being able to pitch Game 1, it's exciting and I want more."
Snell got the ball in Game 1 for the Dodgers and he indeed was great. He's put the Dodgers one win away from advancing the NLDS, and now Los Angeles will have another ace in Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for Game 2.