by Megan Garcia
Blake Snell adjusted his game plan as soon as he realized the Reds’ aggressiveness against his fastball.
His solution was his changeup.
The Reds swung and missed 15 times on it. They struck out five times against it. Through six innings, only one Reds baserunner reached second base.
He positioned the Dodgers for a 10–5 win in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series on Tuesday. They lead the Reds 1–0 in the series. They could punch their ticket to the NL Division Series with a win on Wednesday.
Snell’s efforts were a big factor.
“Blake was fantastic tonight,” said Dodger manager Dave Roberts. “You could see he was in complete control. The fastball was great. The changeup was plus. Kind of mixing and matching and really was in control the entire game.”
Reds’ manager Terry Francona agreed.
“I thought the big difference maker was his changeup — it was his ability to manipulate the change-up, even vary it,” Francona said. “He’d throw one that was 87 and one that was 82 off the first change-up.
“And he threw multiple, like, two, three, four in a row at times and all different speeds. And then you throw a 97 in there, and it becomes difficult.”
Snell ran into trouble in the seventh, but the damage was minimal.
Snell got out of the high-traffic situation that the Reds started. Cincinnati’s two runs cut into the Dodgers’ lead in the seventh, but didn’t pose a threat at the time.
It also closed the book on Snell’s first postseason start as a Dodger — and his longest postseason career outing.
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Pitching deep into October was on his mind when he joined the Dodgers. This was step one.
Snell retired the first eight batters he faced in consecutive order. After a double and a walk with two outs in the third, it was back to the usual. He sat down the next 11 batters — six via the strikeout.
He finished with nine strikeouts against the Reds on 91 pitches. It tied his postseason career high. Snell’s three other nine-strikeout outings were in 2020 during the Rays’ postseason run.
“It felt good to go deep in the ball game,” Snell said. “Just got to control that last inning. But outside of that, I felt really in control. I could read swings and just kind of navigate through the lineup the way I wanted to.”
2025 Wild Card: Blake Snell sets the tone for the Dodger rotation in Game 1 was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.