SAN DIEGO — Blake Snell has been struggling so far this season, and after a rubber game loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon, Snell is now 0-2 in his first three starts.
The teams were tied 2-2 in the fifth inning when Pete Alonso stepped into the box against Snell. And following a snafu with Pitchcom, Snell had to throw a pitch before he was charged with a ball due to a pitch violation, but he threw the ball over the plate, and Alonso hit it out of the park and untied the game.
The Mets didn’t look back and won the game 5-2.
Javier Reyes of the Locked On Padres podcast and Ryan Finkelstein of the Locked On Mets podcastdiscussed the Mets' victory over the Padres and specifically discussed Snell’s troubles in 2023.
Reyes initially joked, “A Blake Snell start, that was a Blake Snell start.” Why did Reyes mean by that? Snell historically does better after the All-Star break in his career. His pre-All-Star break ERA is 4.17, and after, it’s 2.68. So while this kind of start is expected at this point, it was still disappointing for Padres fans to watch.
Finkelstein said about Snell, “I saw some people taking him like a Cy Young candidate this year, thinking contact year Blake Snell. He has gotten off to a terrible start.”
Snell’s first outing was on Opening Day when he lasted only four and one-third innings against the Rockies and gave up three runs on six hits. One positive from the outing was that he only walked one batter and struck nine, but he got the loss.
Snell couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning against the Braves in his next outing. He gave up four runs on six hits, walked four, only struck out two, and gave up a home run to Orlando Arcia.
Then on Wednesday against the Mets, He made it into the sixth, so it was his longest outing of the season, but he gave up two home runs, the go-ahead shot by Alonso, and a solo shot to Francisco Lindor in the third inning and he walked five.
This all adds up to a 6.92 ERA in three starts with zero wins and two losses. He’s also only pitched 13 innings total in those three starts, which is not good. Though Wednesday’s outing was longer than his opening day, start and his start against the Braves on April 7.
As Finkelstein mentioned, this is Snell’s walk year. This is the year he’s putting on a show for either the Padres to show them why they need to retain him or for other teams to show them why they should sign him in the offseason, and he’s not exactly impressing anyone thus far in 2023.
After the game on Wednesday, Snell told reporters, “I don’t care about anyone else’s expectations. My expectation is the one that matters, and I’m not happy with it. But all the work I’ve put in, everything, I’m happy with all of that. The results: Frustrating, yes. Not happy with that. … The battle’s in my head. So, continue to attack, continue to believe in myself.”
The one thing the Padres know is that Snell does seem to step it up in the second half. He did it in 2022 when he pitched to a 2.19 ERA in 14 starts, but the Padres spent a lot of money this offseason to try and win the National League West division and compete for a championship and they need Blake Snell to return to his Cy Young Award-winning self sooner rather than later and break tradition.
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