SNELL HAS NICE START; L.A. GETS TO BULLPEN
That was every bit of the wonderfully, wild Blake Snell ride out there for five innings Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
Brilliantly filthy pitches that one of the major leagues’ best lineups could hardly touch. A dozen strikeouts. Also, four walks and four hits, including a solo home run by Max Muncy, and having to navigate enough trouble that it took 107 pitches to complete the five innings (and his night).
It was a highly encouraging outing for Snell, who entered the game with 5.60 ERA.
Unfortunately for the Padres, they could do next to nothing against a highly efficient
Tony Gonsolin, who allowed four hits, walked none and took 92 pitches to get through 72⁄3 innings.
Two relievers finished off the Dodgers’ 5-1 victory, their 13th in 14 games against the Padres going back to last season, eight straight in L.A.
The deciding run was Cody Bellinger’s solo homer off in the sixth off Craig Stammen, who surrendered another run in the seventh. The Dodgers added two runs against Tim Hill in the eighth.
Trent Grisham’s towering solo homer to right field had tied the game 1-1 in the top of the fifth.
The Padres’ only other hits against Gonsolin (10-0, 1.54 ERA) were doubles by Jurickson Profar — one leading off the game and the other with two outs in the third — and Grisham’s single leading off the eighth.
Muncy’s homer with one out in the second inning was all the damage inf licted on Snell.
As usual, he had to work for that to be the case.
Snell’s starts are essentially the same thing over and over: incredible pitches and highly efficient innings with the seemingly inevitable pitch count-inflating inning.
Strikeouts got him out of every jam Friday, including after Austin Barnes’ one-out double and steal of third in the third. Snell struck out Trea Turner, loaded the bases with a walk and single and escaped the kind of situation that often has spiraled out of control by striking out Justin Turner. Snell struck out the side in the fourth and again in the fifth around numerous hits and walks.