Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell gave up five runs in his team’s 6-1 loss against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, going 6.2 innings, but he didn’t think he pitched poorly.
“They didn’t really get to me,” he told reporters. “First pitch of the game, 97 mph fastball up and in, [Davis Schneider] hits it 98 mph and it goes out. Pretty unlucky. And then [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.], yeah, that’s just a bad pitch. Down and in fastball. But then after that, yeah, pretty smooth sailing. Figured out their lineup, what they like to do. And then Daulton Varsho gets a triple on a 78 mph exit velocity. Just unlucky. I’m not one to make excuses or anything close to that, but it was pretty unlucky. There’s only so much you can do. The seventh inning there, yeah, good pitch, [Addison Barger] just hits the ball in play. Walked the nine-hole guy [Andrés Giménez] that I struck out twice already. Just gotta be better there.”
In total, Snell gave up six hits and four walks, striking out seven. He threw 119 pitches.
His evening got off to a rough start, as he gave up back-to-back homers against Schneider and Guerrero.
He settled down from there, keeping the Blue Jays scoreless in the next two innings. In the top of the fourth, Varsho hit a soft fly ball down the right-field line, which should have been a single. But Teoscar Hernández attempted to make a sliding catch and came up short, allowing the ball to bounce past him. Varsho hustled to third and scored on Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly one batter later.
Snell again settled in and pitched a pair of scoreless innings, but the top of the seventh got away from him.
Barger opened the frame with a single and reached second on a wild pitch. Snell induced a groundout to Isiah Kiner-Falefa but followed that up with a walk to Giménez. Another wild pitch allowed Barger to reach third, Snell struck out Schneider and manager Dave Roberts pulled him in favor of Edgardo Henriquez.
Both runners on base belonged to Snell, however, and Barger promptly scored on the third wild pitch of the inning.
Bo Bichette then singled in Giménez, leaving Snell with his fifth run allowed.
While the Blue Jays were or weren’t getting to Snell, depending on who you ask, Trey Yesavage was absolutely dominant, recording 12 strikeouts in seven innings while only giving up three hits and a run. The result was the Blue Jays taking a 3-2 lead in the series at it heads back to Toronto.
It’s been quite the turnaround for the team after it lost Monday night’s 18-inning marathon. There were questions about whether the Blue Jays would be able to bounce back from the emotional toll of such a loss, but it’s safe to say those questions have been answered.
