Had Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Charlie Morton pitched better in their combined four World Series starts, the Rays might not be looking at a must-win Game 6 against the Dodgers on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Yet, the three starters who are the spine of a team that at times struggles to score runs, haven’t pitched as expected.
Naturally, the Dodgers’ lineup and Clayton Kershaw’s left arm have had something to do with the NL champs holding a 3-2 lead entering Game 6 in the best-of-seven affair. However, Glasnow, Snell and Morton have a combined 8.35 ERA, allowed 18 hits in 18 ¹/₃ innings, 14 walks and five homers.
Snell, who starts Game 6, and Ryan Yarbrough started the two Rays wins. Glasnow started Game 1 and 5 and absorbed the loss in each when he gave up a combined 10 earned runs and three homers in 9 ¹/₃ innings. Morton was the starter and loser in Game 3. He gave up five earned runs, seven hits and a homer in 4 ¹/₃ frames. Snell will be opposed by right-hander Tony Gonsolin. Used as an opener in Game 2 by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Gonsolin gave up a run, a hit, a walk and struck out one in 1 ¹/₃ innings. Roberts said Monday that Gonsolin will not be limited to an opener role Tuesday night.
According to Rays manager Kevin Cash they have identified why the Dodgers have presented problems: They are seeing too many pitches.
“We haven’t done a good enough job of establishing that we are going to get outs within the zone early in the count. The Dodgers do a tremendous job of seeing pitches and getting deep in the count and [are] pretty fearless of hitting with two strikes,’’ Cash said Monday via Zoom. “We haven’t done ourselves any favors by really just saying, attack, attack, attack. It’s been a lot of ball, strike, ball, strike. Throughout that they are seeing everything we got. That first at-bat for a lot of them all the weapons have been brought out.’’
That was certainly a problem for Glasnow in Sunday’s Game 5 loss when he needed 34 pitches to get through the first inning when the Dodgers copped a 2-0 lead on the way to a 4-2 victory that put them nine innings away from their first World Series title since 1988.
Since Snell’s Game 2 outing was the best of the Rays’ three starters have provided, that has to provide confidence that the left-hander can help them force a Game 7. In 4 ²/₃ innings, Snell allowed two runs, two hits and fanned nine. The drawback was four walks. The quartet of Nick Anderson, Peter Fairbanks, Aaron Loup and Diego Castillo allowed a run in the final 3 ¹/₃ innings.
Asked what tells him Snell is on, Cash brought up being aggressive in the zone.
“If he is attacking guys in the zone and trusting he can get outs inside the strike zone, that is a pretty big tell,’’ Cash said.
One of the Dodgers’ Snell might want to cool off is Corey Seager, the left-handed hitting shortstop who is in the World Series MVP conversation thanks to a .471 average (8-for-17), two homers and four RBIs in five games. Seager is 21-for-57 (.368) with seven homers and 18 RBIs in 17 postseason games.
“He is red hot and he is aggressive, too. When you are seeing the ball and you are feeling that way he is going to do that,’’ said Snell, against whom Seager went 1-for-3 in Game 2. “He is swinging a hot bat and confident. You have to find pitches that look very good to him and hope he won’t turn it into a hit. You got to be in the zone and throw strikes to him.’’
Rays reliever Ryan Thompson said being nine innings away from winter isn’t too daunting.
“We expect to win this thing. We believe we can win these next two games and we will,’’ Thompson predicted.
Having Snell deliver the best World Series start by a Rays pitcher would be a big help — both making Thompson looking prophetic and getting to a Game 7.