Make California Post a Preferred Source Something about the Dodgers’ championship run last year bothers Blake Snell.
Snell made two starts in the World Series a year ago, and he didn’t pitch well in either one. The pair of losses robbed him of the satisfaction he felt after winning each of his three previous starts of that postseason.
His only solace was that he contributed 1 ⅓ innings of relief against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series.
Reminded that he couldn’t feel his fingers in the World Series, Snell revealed that was also the case in the previous round when he limited the Milwaukee Brewers to one hit over eight scoreless innings in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
“If I could do it in the CS,” he said, “I could have done it in the World Series.”
And that matters to the 33-year-old, two-time Cy Young Award winner who will be entrusted by the Dodgers to save their season when he starts for them against the Brewers on Wednesday in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers are behind in the best-of-seven series, two games to none.
He’s painfully aware that people think he’s a video-game-addicted slacker who emerges from hibernation in August to begin preparing for the playoffs.
“It’s not like I’m just having surgery because I want to have surgery,” Snell told The California Post. “I want to pitch. I want to win Cy Youngs.”
A year after he was sidelined for four months because of shoulder problems, Snell missed three months this season to recover from a procedure to remove bone chips from his elbow.
He said he feels misunderstood, disrespected even.
He’s particularly offended by the perception that he doesn’t take baseball seriously.
“When it comes to me as a pitcher, I know how good I am,” he said. “I haven’t been able to prove it as much (as I would like). It’s just short sample sizes, and that’s been the frustrating part.”
He pointed to how he’s only made one All-Star team and that was as a replacement player.
“I’ve never been selected as an All-Star straight up,” he said. “That’s the craziest thing. I got selected when someone got hurt. That’s not making the All-Star team.”
The son of a former minor-league pitcher and longtime coach, Snell said he would like for his baseball acumen to be as appreciated as his ability to throw a baseball.
“I just wish people would watch me pitch and then understand the work that I put into being a good pitcher, great pitcher, is a lot more than they’ve ever experienced or give me credit for,” he said. “Because I watch the game, I understand the hitters. I understand who they are right now in the present. I understand who they are as a hitter.”
When he’s not training in the offseason, he said, he’s coaching players from the youth baseball program he founded.
“My offseason,” Snell said, “is baseball the whole time.”
His long-term ambition is to be elected to the Hall of Fame. He also wants to pitch until he’s 45 years old.
“I have a lot to do to make sure my body can hold,” Snell said. “The last two years, I’ve gotten 10 starts a year. That’s not Hall of Fame in my mind. So this offseason is super important. How do I attack it? How do I get my body right? How am I able to make sure I can pitch 30 games, and then on top of that, the postseason? There’s a lot of stuff to prove for myself.”
Before that, he has a critical game to pitch on Wednesday.
His postseason didn’t start the way he wanted, as he pitched just 3 ⅔ innings of a loss to the Atlanta Braves in the Divisional Round.
The reality was that he hadn’t pitched much over the last month. He departed a Sept. 16 start in Cincinnati after just one inning because of discomfort in his groin. He pitched only once after that in the regular season and the Dodgers limited him to four innings in that game.
But, like he said, how he finishes the playoffs will be more important than how he started them. To ensure his next start won’t be his last, he has to win. And if he can get the Dodgers back on track and lead them to a third consecutive championship, perhaps fans will start seeing him the way he sees himself.
