LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell faced the music after a start that began with two swings and an early hole. He called the night “frustrating,” but he also said he trusted the way his stuff held up late. The left-hander gave the Dodgers length and strikeouts, then watched the seventh inning slip away.
“It didn’t really get to me,” Snell said of the opening frame in which he gave up back-to-back home runs three pitches in. “First pitch of the game, 97 up and in, he hits it 98 and it goes out. Pretty unlucky. Then Vlad, that’s a bad pitch, a fastball, and after that it was pretty smooth sailing. I figured out their lineup and what they like to do.”
He kept returning to the idea that some contact just found space. “Varsho gets a triple on a 78 exit velo,” Snell said. “I’m not one to make excuses, but that’s unlucky. There’s only so much you can do when that happens.” He separated that from the miss that bothered him most. “In the seventh, Barger puts a ball in play and then I walk the nine-hole guy I struck out twice already. I’ve got to be better there.”
The radar gun told one story even as the line told another. “I was throwing 97, 98 at the end,” Snell said. “I felt good. I feel strong. I’ve been training to be ready for this and I trust me.” He paused, then added, “It’s just frustrating.”
Toronto’s approach shaped his pitch mix after the early home runs. “Vlad’s a really good hitter, so you’ve got to do some different stuff there,” he said. “The rest of the lineup was ambushing. After I go, I’m going to throw fastballs, you expect that. I read swings, and they were ambushing. As they should.”
A reporter asked if stepping off the heater for a stretch meant he was tipping. Snell shook that off. “A tell? No,” he said. “I don’t think there are tells. I just read swings. They were hunting the fastball early, so you adjust.”
Snell closed with a look ahead, not back. “If we get to Game Seven, I’ll see them again,” he said. “I can’t say much about that now, but I’ll be ready.”
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