Blake Snell’s latest World Series letdown puts Dodgers on brink of defeat

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 Meeting then faltered again late in a - loss Wednesday night that put the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on the brink of a Fall Classic defeat The Blue Jays took a - lead in the best-of-seven series and can steal the title away from LA with a win Friday in Match 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 - Still the sellout crowd of 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 - Schneider sent Snell s first pitch of the challenge into left field Guerrero followed two pitches later with a -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 pitches after that were offspeed Snell gave up five runs and six hits in innings struck out seven and walked four He began strongly in his first postseason with the Dodgers who signed him to a million five-year deal last winter Snell had an 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 - to take a - series lead The left-hander nicknamed Snellzilla was stellar in Challenge of the National League Championship Series a - win over the Milwaukee Brewers He allowed one baserunner in eight shutout innings and struck out while facing the minimum something no one had done in the postseason since Don Larsen s World Series perfect championship in 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 Encounter losing - 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 innings and struck out 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 promising ground-ball double plays forcing Snell to work longer He threw a total of pitches for strikes AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb