The Los Angeles Dodgers received another dominant start from Blake Snell, but it nearly ended with the left-hander falling just short of seven shutout innings.
Snell largely had his way with a talented Philadelphia Phillies lineup on Wednesday night, but issued back-to-back walks with two outs in the seventh inning. The Dodgers held a 3-0 lead at the time and Snell’s pitch count had reached 107, which was a season high.
Manager Dave Roberts sent Ben Rortvedt out to the mound to seemingly buy more time for Alex Vesia in the bullpen. Roberts then emerged from the dugout, at which point Snell began to lobby for remaining in the game.
Roberts obliged after a short conversation on the mound and Vesia needed to retreat to the bullpen after beginning his jog in from left field.
“In that situation, I was actually 50-50,” Roberts said when reflecting on that pivotal moment. “Obviously 99.9% of the time I’ve got my decision made, but in that moment I was kind of up in the air. … It’s just one of those moments, obviously the pitch count got up there, got two outs, walked two guys, and I just didn’t know how much he had left in the tank.
“So I felt convicted to get out there, make a quick little visit and kind of hear him. He was adamant that he wanted that last hitter, and I trusted him. He finished him off the right way, and just a huge boost for us.”
Roberts had not seen Vesia emerge from the bullpen and when informed of that, quipped, “Theres the 99.9% of the time.”
Snell only needed five more pitches to strike out Otto Kemp. He threw 112 pitches and collected 12 strikeouts, both of which were season highs. Snell additionally matched his longest outing of the year at seven innings as he limited the Phillies to just two hits and two walks.
“I’ve faced them a lot, I understand their lineup really well. Anytime I face a really good team, I try to bring the best out of myself and be ready,” Snell said after the Dodgers’ eighth shutout win of the year. “The biggest thing was just command.
“I could command the fastball, which really set up the offspeed and the sequencing was really good. Could be better, but just starting to feel comfortable attacking the zone more.”
Snell improved to 5-1 with a 1.17 ERA and 48 strikeouts over seven starts at Dodger Stadium this season.
What did Blake Snell say to Dave Roberts?
Rather than fatigue setting in, Snell felt his two walks in the seventh inning were tied to chasing a strikeout. He also explained of having a mindset to finish an inning in any circumstance, rather than having a relief pitcher coming in for a potentially difficult situation.
That took a little convincing, but Snell did not need to say much to Roberts.
“I said, ‘Keep me in. I got it,'” Snell relayed. “I was very happy that he trusted me.”
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