Dodgers Interview: Snell explains how things went off the rails
TORONTO — The Dodgers dropped Game One in Toronto, 11–4, and the night turned on the sixth, when traffic, a change on the mound, and two big swings flipped everything. Blake Snell wore it and met it head on. He called it a tough one, not a mystery. He also sounded like a guy who expects to answer quickly.
“I wasn’t locating the ball,” Snell said. “Command with the fastball wasn’t great. The changeup, I couldn’t locate that either.” He kept circling back to the same point. “It’s pretty simple. I just wasn’t locating.”
There was no talk of rust or rhythm. “There’s no excuses. I should be ready,” he said when asked about the long layoff before the Series. “I need to be better. I need to throw strikes. I know I can do that. I don’t care if it’s a month off. Find a way to be ready.”
Toronto did not chase much and that mattered. “It was more command. They’re going to swing if I’m throwing strikes,” Snell said. “I had a bunch of first-pitch outs, first-pitch swings. Of all the hits they had, they had the home run, fastball middle, and then Kirk was just putting together good at-bats, fighting stuff. I’ve got to figure that out.” He added, “Outside of that it was walks and getting behind. I’ve got to be better, locate the ball.”
The inning that changed the game still stung when he ran through it. “That last inning, I locate that pitch all the time,” Snell said. “I walk Bo, and I know what I can do to get an out there. It’s frustrating, but I learned a lot.” He paused and owned the mistake over the plate, too. “A fastball down the middle to Sho. Tough game, but a lot to learn.”
Even with the line and the loss, he leaned into belief more than blame. “I’m still confident. I know what I can do. I know who I am,” he said. Asked if the Blue Jays’ discipline surprised him, he shook it off. “No. If I locate a fastball, it doesn’t matter.”
He also kept it zoomed out to the series as a whole. “We’re confident. We know how good we are,” Snell said. “It was a tough game and they came out swinging, had a better game. It’s four games. You’ve got to win four.” There was no talk of flushing it so much as using it. “I’ve got to learn from it, get better, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Snell’s tone fit what the Dodgers need right now. Game One got away. The rest of the series doesn’t have to. “I like what I’ll be able to do,” he said before heading out. He believes the fix is there, and he believes it happens fast.
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