Blake Snell earned his fourth win of the season and continued a dominant stretch over the last month for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but was still left unsatisfied by his outing.
The left-hander threw 5.2 innings while allowing just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts and two walks against the Miami Marlins. For many pitchers, that’s an excellent day, but Snell expects better of himself.
With two outs in the sixth, he allowed a single to Javier Sanoja, and that prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to turn to the bullpen.
“I just know his swing really well, and the pitch that I threw favors him,” Snell said on SportsNet LA. “People will say it’s a good pitch. It’s not to him. I got away with it earlier because it was off the plate, not under. So it was frustrating to me because I knew what pitches I should’ve thrown to get him out.
“And then coming out of the game, I wanted to go six at worst. For me, I’m just not happy with it.”
Snell had thrown 101 pitches by that point, which was his highest total in an outing this year. He was unable to complete a full six innings for just the second time since being activated one month ago. Not getting though six innings left Snell frustrated as he came off the mound, and that was a result of not being as efficient as he wanted to be in the game.
“The goal at worst is definitely six,” Snell said. “I also know that I can go seven, eight, nine. I know that I’m able to do it. I’ve just got to be more efficient early in the game.
“I feel like once I get past the first couple innings, I start cruising and start figuring it out. Today’s game, getting six would’ve been really good for me. Just with how I felt and what I had to go through, I would’ve more been happy with six. But not getting six, frustrating for me.”
Still, Snell exited the game with a zero on the scoreboard, despite dealing with traffic earlier in the game.
“Early on the fastball command was off, so I went to changeups and more off-speed,” Snell said. “They were trying to ambush heater, which I could tell. I still feel like I could’ve adjusted quicker.
“But overall, if I was not in the zone, very close to being around the zone. I was happy with that. Overall, for me personally, it was just tough. A lot of things I couldn’t do that were difficult, and just locating pitches, first pitch throwing curveballs for strikes was tough. But I was able to throw pitches when I needed to. The fastball, as the game went on, got better and more in the zone.”
The run charged to Snell was a result of Sanoja scoring when Evan Phillips allowed a double that cut the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1.
Even with the results that frustrated the 33-year-old, he still lowered his season ERA to 1.91 in 37.2 innings with 51 strikeouts and a 1.09 WHIP. Snell has not allowed more than one run in any of his six starts since coming off the injured list on Aug. 11, and he’s thrown at least five innings in all of them.
Blake Snell chasing perfection?
Snell also expressed frustration after his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates when he threw six scoreless innings with just two hits allowed. He walked three batters, which limited his ability to go deeper into the game.
“It’s just not acceptable, especially when I feel good,” Snell explained after that start. “I know I can command the ball. It’s just, it’s honestly lazy. It’s me trying to get strikeouts instead of trying to go seven, eight, nine. So definitely got to clean that up, but I know I’m going to do that and just continue to get better, learn and grow.”
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