MILWAUKEE — The disparity in the payrolls was the focus of the series before the first pitch ever delivered, the handiwork of the manager 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 for $400 million.
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.
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. The Dodgers won because they had a $182-million starting pitcher in Blake Snell, who pitched eight scoreless innings.
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 Shohei Ohtani or a Mookie Betts?
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.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start for the Dodgers in Game 2 on Tuesday. Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow will start 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. 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.
Only when the Dodgers turned to their bullpen in the ninth inning did the game become close.
So the bullpen remains a problem. So the form of Ohtani remains a question mark, as the Brewers refused to pitch to him.
But neither problem is severe enough to sink the Dodgers, not against this opponent.
Entering this series, much of the conversation centered on Ohtani, who was one for 18 with nine strikeouts in the previous round against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Between the NLDS and NLCS, manager Dave Roberts publicly called on Ohtani to improve the quality of his at-bats, in particular to not swing at inside pitches off the plate.
“We’re not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance,” Roberts said.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman offered a more charitable assessment of Ohtani’s NLDS. The rhetoric bordered on hyperbolic, with Friedman describing the performance of the Phillies’ pitchers in historic terms.
“I think it was the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen,” Friedman said.
Friedman explained: “Look, if a pitcher who has really good stuff executes at an A-plus level, hitters aren’t going to hit. Hitting is way too difficult. It’s about hitting mistakes more than not, and they executed it on him at an elite rate.”
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.
“Those guys are really, really good,” Murphy said. “So I don’t consider Ohtani struggling. I don’t. It’s baseball.”
However, Murphy sounded as if he had designs of replicating the Phillies’ plan as closely as possible.
“I want to throw lefties against him whenever we can,” Murphy said. “It’s always harder for a lot of those lefties to face lefties that are throwing 95 [mph] and above and sinkers into them.”
The Brewers deployed left-hander Aaron Ashby as an opener. Ohtani led off the game by drawing a walk against him. Ohtani was walked twice more, both times intentionally. He was hitless in his two other plate appearances, but the Dodgers managed that.
Ohtani wasn’t the only premium player they could afford.
