Has Blake Snell Finally Figured It Out?

The San Diego Padres are having an awful August in which they could have taken advantage of. The team is currently 8-13 in the month that can make or break seasons. With all of the struggles from the offense not scoring and the pitching being hurt and overused, there is one thing that is good. Blake Snell has been his best all season. For a former Cy Young winner, Snell has been awful for majority of his starts as a Padre this season, but he has started to pitch better and maybe now with Rothschild gone, that can be a game changer.

Blake Snell has so far started five games in August and has been dealing in each of them. Combining those starts, Snell has himself a 2-1 record, a 2.12 ERA, only 10 BB, 44 K's a 0.97 WHIP and has just allowed 19 hits in 29.2 innings pitched. Wow! As Padre fans we know how to keep the faith but were we expecting this? Yes. From his first start in the brown and gold, but we have been patient and have given Snell time.

Snell in the month has become a two-pitch pitcher. He has focused mainly on his top two options in his four-seam fastball and his slider. The curveball usage has decreased and the changeup has basically been cut out for now. So far, Snell using his fastball over 60% of the time is the highest in any of the months since September of 2019 (61.4% usage rate.)

I sometimes feel that the more you make a pitcher throw different pitches, the more thinking it involves and it becomes a mental battle on the mound. (Thanks Rothschild.) So why not stick to the main ingredients? A hitter knowing what pitch is coming is one thing, but actually making good contact with it is another. Even though Snell has faced much more right-handed batters, he surprisingly sticks to the fastball even on lefties and rarely gets into the slider which is more effective on righties. (The slider has been thrown just 27 times to lefties but 91 to righties.)

Snell's best start without a doubt came just recently on August 25th, where it was a career high in pitches thrown and innings pitched. Snell managed to shutdown the Los Angeles Dodgers for the most part yet again by going 7.2 innings as well as throwing 122 pitches! In addition, it was also the first time that Snell did now allow a walk since Game 6 of the 2020 World Series against... the Dodgers. Snell only allowed 3 hits overall but one made Petco go real quiet. Will Smith, who homered the day before on a fastball up in the zone demolished a baseball to tie things up at 1-1. But Snell did get 10 strikeouts and just looked like the Rays World Series Snell.

The month of September is quickly approaching and it will not be easy. In fact, San Diego has the hardest schedule remaining. But Snell will not go down without a fight. Before August, Snell stated "I've got to do my part to be the best me, finish as strong as I can to help this team have a legit push to make the playoffs." Snell continued "I'll be disappointed at how I've pitched this season, period. But the only way I'd think differently is if we win a World Series. So that's my focus now. Do the best I can to dominate every outing from here on out. If we get to the playoffs, I need to be the guy that steps up and does what I should've been doing the entire season. If I can do that and we win a World Series, it'll be my favorite season ever."