The Dodgers lost a clunker to the Blue Jays in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, thanks to a nine-run sixth inning that turned the opener into a laugher. Blake Snell allowed the first three runs
of the inning, leaving after not retiring any of his three batters faced in the sixth, and suffered his first loss in four starts this postseason.
“I just thought tonight Blake just didn’t have fastball command. He was working deeper counts,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Toronto after the loss. “When he had count leverage, he really couldn’t put ’em away because they were putting the ball in play, and there were just a couple bad walks in there.”
Snell, who walked three and allowed five runs in his five-plus innings, agreed about his fastball command during his postgame media scrum.
After Shohei Ohtani hit three home runs and struck out 10 in six scoreless innings to close out the NLCS, Dylan Hernández at the Los Angeles Times argued (correctly, I think) that Ohtani should continue being a two-way player for as long as he wants.
“Games like the one Ohtani played against the Brewers are what makes sports worth watching. An athlete pushing the boundaries of what’s humanly possible are what make games interesting,” Hernández wrote. “So enough with this nonsense about what he might not be able to do. Imagine what he can do, and let the dreamer continue to dream.”
Former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is now the bench coach for the Blue Jays, and is in the first World Series in his 39 seasons in baseball. Ronald Blum at Associated Press talked to folks about Mattingly.
Adam Peterson at Purple Row argued that the Dodgers as a franchise should be contracted. Take that with however many grains of salt you deem appropriate, but I did enjoy this line: “The Dodgers don’t have more money than God, but if God ever ran into some liquidity issues, the Dodgers would be a good first call (with Ohtani being a close second).”
A fun fact from Game 1 of the World Series involving Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette (son of Dante), and Daulton Varsho (son of Gary), courtesy of Sarah Langs of MLB.com:
