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The Milwaukee Brewers limited the Los Angeles Dodgers to two runs and pulled off one of the greatest defensive plays in baseball history.

It wasn’t enough to beat Blake Snell.

The Dodgers’ ace held the Brewers to a single hit across eight sterling innings to anchor a 2-1 Dodgers victory in Game 1 of the NLCS on Monday. Milwaukee’s only run of the game arrived courtesy of the Dodgers’ bullpen in the ninth inning after Snell had left the game. It was a masterpiece from the two-time Cy Young winner, who has allowed two runs across 21 innings in three playoff starts in his postseason debut with the Dodgers.

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With the victory in Milwaukee, the Dodgers go up 1-0 in the series and steal home-field advantage in their bid to secure a second consecutive World Series championship.

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Snell started the game with 1-2-3 frames in the first two innings. He allowed a leadoff single to Caleb Durbin in the third, then initiated a pickoff play to catch Durbin as he tried to steal second. Durbin was the only baserunner Snell allowed.

Snell retired every batter he faced for the remainder of his eight innings and faced the minimum thanks to the pickoff play on Durbin. With his 103rd pitch, Snell caught Sal Frelick looking for his 10th strikeout of the game to end the eighth inning, and with that, his night was done.

When it was over, Snell had allowed the single hit to Durbin, walked none and faced 24 batters across eight shutout innings while striking out 10.

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For the ninth inning, manager Dave Roberts called on rookie Roki Sasaki, who has taken on a leverage bullpen role in the postseason after injury cut his regular season short. Sasaki was lights-out in the NLDS against the Phillies but didn’t have his best stuff in this one. He allowed a run after putting runners on second and third with one out, then walked Christian Yelich with two outs to put runners on the corners with a 2-1 lead.

At that point, Sasaki was done. Roberts called upon veteran reliever Blake Treinen to secure the game’s final out. Treinen walked William Contreras to load the bases and bring up Brice Turang with the game in the balance.

With the count 1-2, Treinen threw a sweeper that dove inside and almost hit Turang, which would’ve plated the game-tying run had Turang not dodged out of the way. On Treinen’s next pitch, Turang swung at a high fastball for a game-ending strikeout.

The Brewers countered Snell with a bullpen game that largely stifled a potent Dodgers lineup, as six pitchers combined to limit Los Angeles to two runs on seven hits. The pitching staff also got some help from a sensational and unbelievable double-play in the fourth inning.

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With the bases loaded and one out, Max Muncy hit a deep fly ball to center field that bounced off Frelick’s glove, off the outfield wall and back into Frelick’s glove. It wasn’t a catch. Muncy was not out.

But Frelick and the Brewers’ defense ensured that no Dodgers would score on the play. Frelick fired a throw to the infield that resulted in a forceout of Teoscar Hernández at home. Catcher William Contreras then ran to third base with the ball for a forceout of Will Smith, who had returned to second, unaware that Muncy wasn’t out. Smith was thinking he needed to tag up, when really he needed to advance to third.

Had Frelick not secured the ball off the ricochet, multiple Dodgers runs would’ve surely scored. Had he not thrown the ball back for a perfect cutoff throw from Joey Ortiz to home plate, Hernández would’ve certainly scored. Had Contreras not acted quickly to force Smith out at third, the Dodgers’ inning would’ve remained alive with the bases still loaded.

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Altogether, it was a spectacular play that ensured the game remained in a scoreless tie. And thanks largely to that play, the only Dodgers damage before the ninth inning arrived courtesy of reigning World Series MVP Freddie Freeman, who got the Dodgers on the board with a solo home run in the sixth.

Facing a full count with one out in the sixth, Freeman launched a Chad Patrick fastball over the right-field bullpen and into the stands for a solo home run.

That was all the Dodgers’ scoring until a bases-loaded walk of Mookie Betts in the ninth plated what turned out to be a critical insurance. An intentional walk of Shohei Ohtani had set up that bases-loaded walk, and Betts’ score stood as the game-winning run.

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In the end, the Dodgers got a masterful performance from Snell and key plays from their lineup when they needed them most. And they narrowly avoided a bullpen collapse.

The Dodgers and Brewers will run it back in Game 2 on Tuesday (8:08 p.m. ET/TBS, TruTV, HBO Max) with Milwaukee looking to even the series.