TORONTO — Here in Toronto, Blake Snell sounded steady and locked in. The Dodgers’ Game 1 starter didn’t raise his voice or sell a speech; he just laid out how he thinks through a night like this. He’s pitched on this stage before. He knows what it asks from a starter who wants to carry a team into a series. And he made it clear he’s ready for the energy that comes with it.
Asked what’s different about the Blue Jays he faced in August, Snell pointed to their momentum. He said the lineup “has a lot of confidence” and that they’ve been “doing a good job of each at-bat fueling off each other.” He added that he’s watched their recent games and respects what they bring, saying, “They’ve always been a good lineup… I’m excited for the challenge.”
On the night-before routine, his answer came out calm. Snell said, “Everything gets quiet and focused, and I start processing what I want to happen, what I’m going to face, and build from that.” It’s preparation without noise, a pitcher setting his plan and sticking to it.
Someone brought up a rookie on the other side and what it’s like to be that young, thrown into a spotlight. Snell didn’t guess about another pitcher’s makeup. He said, “I don’t know his journey versus mine… he’s facing a Dodgers lineup that’s really good. How’s he going to react to that? There are so many questions.” He wasn’t dismissive, just honest about the unknowns that the first game of a World Series always reveals.
When the conversation turned to his own growth, Snell didn’t hesitate. “I was a baby,” he said. He called himself “night and day different” now and pointed to experience as the separator: “Experience is everything. It matters. It’s what makes pitchers really good. It’s just time.” He extended that thought to the 2020 version of himself: “I’ve matured. I’ve grown up… I was kind of a kid still in 2020. Family, wife, a lot’s changed.” Baseball means more to him now, he said, because he recognizes that “I only have so much time left,” and he’s “more appreciative of the moments.”
Snell was asked about the last time the world watched him in the Fall Classic, the early hook that became a talking point. He didn’t linger there. “I don’t think about it really at all anymore,” he said. For a week after, he admitted he ran through “what could have been different,” but the lesson he kept was about trust. “If I would have done more early on in my career to gain his trust it would have been a different outcome,” he said. He framed it as part of learning how the game works: “It made me a better pitcher because I understand the game is more than just myself, just the pieces and how it all works.” Then he let it rest: “I finally just let it go.”
On stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, Snell kept the game plan private. He called them “veteran hitters” who “know what they’re doing” and “what they’re looking for.” He wasn’t going to tip anything. That restraint told you as much as any scouting note would.
What does this start mean to him in a Dodgers uniform? He answered fast: “Right now in the moment it’s the most important start of my career,” he said. The reason is simple. “We have a chance to win a World Series, the ultimate team goal.” He also acknowledged the weight of the franchise’s history in this spot. “Wearing a Dodger uniform is special,” he said, and while being on the list of Game 1 starters is “cool,” he added that “you want to have impact on that list. That’s more important.”
He talked about how he learns from each outing. “Each start you learn,” he said. He described how he dissects games afterward, looking at “what you like, what you don’t like, where you got lucky,” and above all trying to understand “what’s the hitter trying to do.” The ballpark setting factors in, too. “When you’re younger you can let it spiral,” he said. With age, it becomes “an environment,” and you decide how to meet it. The recent crowds have fueled him: “I pitched in Philly, Milwaukee, both were great crowds, electric,” and after watching the noise here for Games 6 and 7, he said, “I can’t wait. It’s going to be great energy, good baseball, two really good teams.”
Snell explained how he sharpened his ability to read swings. He said he always loved watching baseball, but after winning his first Cy Young in 2018 he felt “kind of clueless” about how he did it. In 2019, he thought “I’m going to do it again,” then got hurt and realized he had to evolve. “You have to get better,” he said. “Winning a Cy Young is very difficult.” That’s when he began studying deeper, building game plans, and asking questions of veterans: “What’s going to make me different? I’ve got to be different than everybody.” He credited “veterans, older guys, pitching coaches” for helping him become the player he is “and really the guy that I’m striving to be.”
One of those veterans is Clayton Kershaw. Snell said the value is in simple, honest dialogue. “It’s just conversations,” he said. He’ll ask why Kershaw does something, what he thinks is the best part of his game, and then try to apply it: “How can you piece that to your game? Because you’re building the best version of you.” What stands out most to him about Kershaw is the competitiveness. “He could have nothing and he’ll find a way to dominate because he’s so competitive,” Snell said, and then he asked himself the same question he puts to Kershaw: “How do you learn that?” The answer, in his view, is to keep asking and keep figuring out “what part of that you can do.”
The left-hander clearly knows the assignment on Friday and says it plainly: prepare, read swings, trust the work, and embrace the noise. Game 1 is here, and Blake Snell is treating it like what it is to him. “The most important start of my career.”
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