Dodgers Interview: Snellzilla Battles Through Six, Talks October
PHOENIX — Blake Snell didn’t have his A-plus arsenal in the desert, but he had enough—and he had a plan. After six hard-fought innings in the Dodgers’ 5–4, 11-inning win over the Diamondbacks, Snell’s postgame breakdown sounded like a pitcher working the problem in real time and liking the answers he found.
“This was a grind,” he admitted. “Early on I was learning a lot—reading swings. The curveball wasn’t really breaking the way I wanted, so I had to adjust. I kept reading swings, trusting my feel, and as the game went on I started the ball in the zone more. I could see what hitters were cheating to and picked up some tells.”
That theme—observe, adapt, attack—ran through the entire outing. Arizona’s first big swing came immediately, and Snell treated it like a data point rather than a warning sign. “Ketel [Marte] started the game with their best hit against me on a curveball, and then Moreno got a curveball later,” he said. “I learned from it. I had to move the ball around more and throw different pitches.”
By the middle frames, Snell had the game in his hands even without the snap on the breaker. He leaned on sequencing, tunneled the fastball to steal called strikes, and trusted the defense to handle contact—exactly the kind of September blueprint a contender wants from a frontline starter on a night his swing-and-miss isn’t maxed out.
The hinge moment came in the sixth, when traffic and pitch count converged and Dave Roberts visited the mound. “We were just talking—seeing how I felt,” Snell said. “I had total confidence I could get out of it. I felt comfortable. I was throwing the ball well.” He did, finishing six innings of one-run ball and handing a lead to the bullpen.
Asked whether this is where he wants to be entering October—especially after downtime earlier in the year—Snell’s answer was measured, not chest-thumping. “I don’t know if it’s where I want to be. It’s where I should be. It’s where I am right now, and I’m good with that,” he said. “I’ve had a bunch of starts where I’ve learned a ton. I’m excited for what’s to come in the postseason. I still have a lot to learn, but yeah.”
That’s classic Snell: competitive, analytical, and honest about the process. What stood out Wednesday was how comfortable he seemed competing without his ideal feel for the curve. Rather than force it, he shrank the zone when needed, expanded when the D-backs started guessing, and let the night turn on decisions instead of only stuff. It’s a small thing with big October implications; playoff lineups punish predictability more than raw velocity.
Snell also lit up when asked about the inning that followed his own: Roki Sasaki’s electric relief cameo. “I was so excited,” he said. “He came in at 100 with a nasty split. If he can do that, that’s a big help for us.” From center field, Tommy Edman had called Sasaki “pretty electric,” and Snell’s vantage point from the dugout agreed—attack the zone, show the split, let the velo play. On a night that doubled as a bullpen lab for the Dodgers, Snell’s enthusiasm underscored how quickly roles can become weapons in October.
The celebration mood? Controlled, with the volume knob ready to turn. The win dropped the magic number to one, and Snell didn’t hide the confidence. “We’re in the postseason, so I’m excited for that,” he said. “To clinch tomorrow and win the division—I’m confident we’re going to do it. I’ve been confident since before the season. I’ll be ready. But the party I want is at the end—the last one.”
Between the lines, Snell’s night was a reminder of why the Dodgers paid for him: he can win different kinds of games. When the curve wasn’t curving, he trusted the map—reads, adjustments, conviction—and still delivered length against a high-octane top of the order. He kept Carroll in the ballpark, worked around early chaos, and passed the baton with the game where it needed to be.
Zoom out, and the trio of threads from Wednesday—Snell’s floor being high, Sasaki’s ceiling flashing hot, and Clayton Kershaw’s clean ninth—felt less like a one-night experiment than a postseason sketch. For Snell, specifically, the mission now is simple: stack the feel, polish the breaker, keep the sequencing sharp, and carry the “right where I am” version of himself into October. If this is the baseline, the Dodgers can live with that—and win with it.
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