By BETH HARRIS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Snell came into the World Series on a dominant roll. That ended abruptly against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner gave up two home runs on his first three pitches in Game 5, then faltered again late in a 6-1 loss Wednesday night that put the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on the brink of a Fall Classic defeat.
The Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and can steal the title away from LA with a win Friday in Game 6 in Toronto.
Snell recovered after allowing back-to-back homers to Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but then couldn’t finish the seventh inning. He left runners on first and third after a walk, a single and two wild pitches, and the Blue Jays leading 3-1. Still, the sellout crowd of 52,175 stood to applaud.
Edgardo Henriquez replaced Snell and walked Guerrero. Addison Barger, who singled and moved up on Snell’s pair of wild pitches, scored on Henriquez’s wild pitch, making it 4-1.
Schneider sent Snell’s first pitch of the game into left field. Guerrero followed two pitches later with a 394-foot shot to left, too, giving the Blue Jays a lead they never surrendered. Each of the first three pitches were fastballs, and Snell’s next 22 pitches after that were offspeed.
Snell gave up five runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out seven and walked four.
He began strongly in his first postseason with the Dodgers, who signed him to a $182 million, five-year deal last winter. Snell had an 0.86 ERA in his first three starts.
In the NL Division Series, Snell allowed one hit in six shutout innings and struck out nine as the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 to take a 2-0 series lead.
The left-hander nicknamed “Snellzilla” was stellar in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, a 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. He allowed one baserunner in eight shutout innings and struck out 10 while facing the minimum, something no one had done in the postseason since Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game in 1956.
The Dodgers went on to sweep the Brewers in four games and go into the World Series with a shot of momentum.
Then Snell got shelled in Game 1, losing 11-4. He gave up five home runs, including three of the nine Toronto had in the sixth inning. Before that, Snell had allowed just two runs in 21 innings and struck out 27 batters.
On Wednesday, Snell got no help from a stone-cold Dodgers’ offense that managed just one run and four hits. Shohei Ohtani was hitless with a strikeout. Will Smith and Mookie Betts struck out twice, while Freddie Freeman had three strikeouts.
The defense let him down, too.
Betts and Tommy Edman faltered in the first couple innings on potential ground-ball double plays, forcing Snell to work longer. He threw a total of 116 pitches, 69 for strikes.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb