The Cleveland Guardians took it right to Blake Snell and the San Diego Padres yesterday.
With a 7-0 road victory, the Guardians completed a two-game sweep and increased their lead in the AL Central to four games over both the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins.
Snell had a rare clunker against the Guardians, lasting just 3.1 innings and allowing six runs.
Even more shocking was the fact that coming into yesterday’s start, Snell had a 1.62 career ERA against the Guardians in five starts, had not allowed a multi-home run game all season long, and hadn’t allowed as many as six runs in a game.
All of that changed yesterday.
What if I told you..
– Blake Snell’s career ERA entering today v CLE was 1.62 in 5 games started
– Snell hadn’t allowed a multi-HR game all season
– the 6 runs he allowed are the most this season#Guardians put up a crooked number in the 4th & stake Cal Quantrill to a 6-0 lead pic.twitter.com/uYulPbZYeP— Jensen Lewis (@JLEWFifty) August 24, 2022
Snell Has Clunker Vs. Guardians
The Guardians took it straight to Snell and the Padres.
They continued their hot streak and made Snell look completely lost, continuing the Padres’ current slump and dropping them to 19.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
But the Guardians have been surprising people all season long.
They weren’t expected to do much of anything prior to the start of the 2022 season, yet here they are, in first place, and having just scored six runs off of a guy who had dominated them in the five starts he had made against them during his time with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cal Quantrill started for the Guardians and had quite the opposite outing to that of his Padres counterpart, throwing seven scoreless innings and striking out six, allowing five hits and just one walk.
Snell was a completely different pitcher on the mound yesterday than he had been in his previous five starts against Cleveland.
We’ll see if that ends up being a fluke start or if the Guardians have ultimately figured him out.
NEXT: Padres Manager Is Hoping The Worst Is Over