Exclusive | Blake Snell tasked with saving Dodgers season, eyes October redemption and a new image

Something about the Dodgers’ championship run last year bothers Blake Snell.“It’s always how you finish,” Snell said.Snell made two starts in the World Series a year ago, and he didn’t pitch well in either one.The pair of losses robbed him of the satisfaction he felt after winning each of his three previous starts of that postseason.His only solace was that he contributed 1 ⅓ innings of relief against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series.Reminded that he couldn’t feel his fingers in the World Series, Snell revealed that was also the case in the previous round when he limited the Milwaukee Brewers to one hit over eight scoreless innings in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.“If I could do it in the CS,” he said, “I could have done it in the World Series.”Snell understands what’s at stake in October.Reputation.Legacy.And that matters to the 33-year-old, two-time Cy Young Award winner who will be entrusted by the Dodgers to save their season when he starts for them against the Brewers on Wednesday in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

The Dodgers are behind in the best-of-seven series, two games to none.Snell knows how the public views him.He’s painfully aware that people think he’s a video-game-addicted slacker who emerges from hibernation in August to begin preparing for the playoffs.“It’s not like I’m just having surgery because I want to have surgery,” Snell told The California Post.“I want to pitch.

I want to win Cy Youngs.”A year after he was sidelined for four months because of shoulder problems, Snell missed three months this season to recover from a procedure to remove bone chips from his elbow.He said he feels misunderstood, disrespected even. He’s particularly offended by the perception that he doesn’t take baseball seriously.“When it comes to me as a pitcher, I know how good I am,” he said.“I haven’t been able to prove it as much (as I would like).

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