Blake Snell went four months without working in the majors this season. From April 2 to August 2, the left-hander went through an ordeal with inflammation in his left shoulder that prevented him from contributing what the Dodgers expected after signing him to a five-year, $182 million contract.
However, the time Snell was healthy he proved that he could be a true ace in a star-studded rotation like Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. Of his 11 regular season appearances, 10 of them allowed three earned runs or less, a sign that his performance was at an elite level.
For the Dodgers, his end to the season was encouraging heading into the playoffs. In his last three starts, he worked 19 innings with a 0.47 ERA, 28 strikeouts, five walks and only one extra-base hit allowed against 70 batters. The discomfort definitely seemed to be a thing of the past.
Sensational October
Regardless of his improvement, what Blake Snell might achieve in the postseason was an unknown. In his previous eight October outings, the left-hander had allowed runs in each of them, with a 4.06 ERA. However, since these playoffs began, he has been simply spectacular from the mound.
Against the Reds in the Wild Card round, he went seven innings with two runs and nine strikeouts, while in the Division Series he allowed only one hit to the Phillies, again with nine strikeouts.
The icing on the cake of his sensational postseason performance came on Monday against Milwaukee in the opener of the Championship Series. In an extremely close game, Snell walked eight scoreless innings, with one hit, no walks and ten strikeouts.
It was a masterpiece
“It was a masterpiece,” said Freddie Freeman, who contributed to the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory with a home run. From the opposing side, William Contreras also surrendered to the left-hander: “Everybody knows who Blake Snell is. Everybody knows the work he’s done”.
With this outing, Snell became only the second pitcher in history to record two consecutive starts of nine or more strikeouts and one or fewer hits allowed in the postseason. Previously, only Dominican Christian Javier had achieved this feat between 2022 and 2023.
At the level of Sandy Koufax
Although there is some debate among Dodgers fans and pundits, many still consider Sandy Koufax to be the greatest pitcher in franchise history ahead of Clayton Kershaw.
The fellow left-hander and Hall of Famer wrote his legendary pages in just 12 seasons between 1955 and 1966. Despite the short time he worked, he won the Triple Crown three times, three Cy Young Awards, an MVP and five ERA titles. He also won four World Series with the Dodgers.
In the postseason, Koufax is one of 10 pitchers to have at least three outings of six or more innings, nine or more strikeouts and two or fewer runs allowed in a single season. The last to inscribe his name on that exclusive list was Snell, who joined a group of exceptional pitchers.
- Curt Schilling (2001-Arizona): 5 such starts
- Josh Beckett (2003-Marlins): 4
- Sandy Koufax (1965-Dodgers): 3
- Mike Mussina (1997- Orioles): 3
- Cliff Lee (2010-Texas): 3
- Justin Verlander (2013-Detroit): 3
- Gerrit Cole (2019-Houston): 3
- Framber Valdez (2022-Houston): 3
- Tarik Skubal (2025-Detroit): 3
Of all of them, only Mussina, Verlander and now Skubal did not make it to the World Series..
Read the full article here
