Blake Snell goes from hero to zero as Dodgers collapse in Game 3 loss to Brewers

Heroes, zeros and other observations from the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series:Zero: Blake Snell –– in the seventh inningThere was something different about Blake Snell this week.All around the ballpark, the usually jovial left-hander wore a stoic expression.He walked to and from outfield catch play every day with a look of determination on his face.His Dodgers teammates noticed it.

So did his manager.“Much more quiet, much more kind of staying to himself,” Dave Roberts said of his star left-hander.“I think he’s been really anxious to get another opportunity … When you guys see him take the mound today, you’re going to see another level of intensity.”For six innings, that was true, with Snell overcoming a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the night to Jackson Choruio by retiring 18 of his next 20 and 14 in a row at one point.It gave the Dodgers’ slumping offense time to finally break through, when Will Smith hit a go-ahead two-run double with the bases loaded in the sixth.But then, in a sequence that will reverberate long into the winter, Snell returned for the seventh and suffered an historic postseason meltdown.He walked leadoff batter Andrew Vaughn.

He then got Jake Bauers in a two-strike count but repeatedly failed to put him away.Five times, Bauers fouled off a two-strike offering.Just as he did to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, he extended an at-bat into double-digit pitches.Finally, on pitch No.

11, Snell made a mistake, leaving a fastball down the middle.Bauers was all over it, clobbering a no-doubt two-run homer halfway up the right-field pavilion.If that wasn’t bad enough, Garrett Mitchell doubled the pain two pitches later, going back-to-back on another long ball to right.That ended Snell’s night, and marked only the fifth time in his career he had allowed three home runs in a game.Even more shockingly: He hadn’t given up a big fly in any of his 10 previous ...