Blake Snell had shoved for six innings in NLCS Game 3. Nine strikeouts, one walk, and only one run allowed after giving up a first-pitch homer. He was dealing, plain and simple, riding a crackling fastball with his killer secondaries. But when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent him back out for the seventh inning, everything went sideways in a hurry, pushing LA to the brink of elimination.
The “Stuff Was Really Good,” Until It Wasn’t
You’ve got a guy cruising, right? Snell had faced 21 batters, settled into a rhythm, and Roberts felt good about his ace. “His stuff was really good,” Roberts said postgame, adding he thought Snell had “retired 13 or 14 in a row” and that “I don’t think they were seeing him well.” The plan? Get him through “three more hitters,” with Evan Phillips warming for the fourth. But then came the dangerous third time through the opposing order, and the Brewers’ 4-5-6 batters were due up. Right-handed Andrew Vaughn was first, and Snell walked him on seven pitches. Uh oh. With Jake Bauers, a lefty, stepping in, Roberts stuck with Snell. And Bauers made him pay. On the 11th and final pitch of what Roberts called “another good at-bat,” Bauers turned the game on its ear, hitting a monster home run. “Obviously the leadoff walk hurt,” Roberts admitted, but he felt “good with where Blake’s stuff was at.”
The “Middle of the At-Bat” Argument That Blew Up
Even after Bauers’ bomb, Roberts kept Snell on the mound. Another lefty, Garrett Mitchell, stepped up against a visibly laboring Snell. The result? Back-to-back homers, and suddenly the Dodgers were down 6-2. That was the first time in Snell’s entire career he’d given up consecutive dingers to left-handed batters. With the Dodgers’ “punchless offensive attack” not doing much, those two shots “all but ended the game and the series.” When asked why he didn’t pull Snell after Bauers’ homer, Roberts explained, “The Bauers at-bat, it’s the middle of the at-bat, so he’s going to finish that at-bat. Then he gives up a homer, you’re down a run. For me, I just don’t think it made sense, given where he was throwing the baseball, pitch count, all that stuff, to allow him to get through Mitchell, where I thought he took, he was throwing well against him, yeah.” Turns out, Snell had “not allowed a home r” all year before this critical sequence. Now the Dodgers are staring down elimination, and every single fan, and likely every single player in that clubhouse, is going to be wondering about that fateful seventh inning. That’s baseball for ya, but man, sometimes “baseball” just hurts.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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