Blake Snell led all pitchers (Min. 9 IP) in lowest WHIP in the 2020 Fall Classic. The gutsy pitcher held him Tampa Bay Rays in every game. Amazingly enough, Blake didn't even get tagged with a decision of any kind in his two starts.
Snell was a 21-game winner in 2018 with Tampa, leading the American League in lowest earned run average, 1.89. But the following year, Blake was just 6-8. 2020 was better, as he went 4-2 in just eleven starts. His ERA was 3.24, still a far cry from what it had been two seasons earlier.
Come postseason, Blake was just a beast. He beat Toronto in his only start, allowing just one hit (5.2 IP). That was in the American League Wild Card contest. In the Division Series, Snell fell back to earth, posting an ugly ERA of 7.20. Blake improved in the League Championship Series, going 1-1 against the 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros. His earned run average was 3.00. However, there was some bad news.
That walks and hits allowed per nine stat wasn't good against Houston. It was 1.667. Awaiting the Tampa Bay Rays in the Fall Classic was the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had a pitcher (Clayton Kershaw), who would probably take care of the WHIP, ERA, wins, and K leaderboard.
Well, as it turns out, Clayton was awesome. Determined to finally get his hands on the big prize for the first time in his career (Los Angeles had to settle for second best to Houston in 2017 and Boston the next year), Kershaw went out and won his only two starts. ERA? 2.31. Strikeouts? 14 in just 11 2/3 innings. WHIP? 0.857. You would think, reading this, that Clayton had it all nailed down.
However, our gutsy boy Blake was courageous. Sure, Clayton Kershaw beat Tampa 8-3 in the opening tilt, but this was far from over. Los Angeles didn't win the second contest, though. Blake Snell started. Although he was able to pitch just 4 2/3 innings, it was still a pretty good outing. Snell allowed just two runs. He fanned nine. Now for the bad part: Two hits and four walks allowed! That WHIP was no good at this point.
But the more important picture is that the Rays evened it all up. The 6-4 win in Los Angeles sent Blake Snell's team home (Well, sort of) with the series tied. Nick Anderson ended up the winning pitcher in that contest if you were wondering.
Reality set in for the home team in game three. The Rays couldn't come up with a victory. It's worth pointing out at here that the Fall Classic of 2020 was played entirely at Globe Life Field in Arlington Texas. This was due to Covid-19. It was an awkward Fall Classic, but both teams had to get used to it.
Instead of the "new" home team winning, the Dodgers took the third contest, 6-2. A slugfest was the story in game four. Speaking of four, that's how many Rays players went yard. Tampa got home runs from Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Lowe and Hunter Renfroe. Los Angeles got some bombs, too. From Corey Seager and Justine Turner. The Rays took it, 8-7.
But the momentum swung right back to the Dodgers the next night. LA tallied four times on six hits off Tyler Glasnow, who lasted five innings. All was not bad about Tyler's start. He also fanned seven LA batters. The Tampa batters were confronted with Clayton Kershaw. In 5 2/3 innings, the Rays got five hits and two runs off him. Both bullpens were superb in this fifth game. In a combined seven innings of work, the relievers on both sides combined on two hit ball and no runs scored. The 4-2 win gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-2 series lead.
Blake Snell was back on the hill, looking to send this Fall Classic to a seventh and deciding contest. He pitched his heart out. He went 5 1/3 innings. The Tampa pitcher held Los Angeles to just two hits and one run, fanning nine.
But when the smoke cleared, the "home" team won it. The Dodgers four, the Ray, two. The teams combined for 27 strikeouts, setting a new World Series single game record. Ironically, the Dodgers had been involved with the previous high (25) forty-seven years earlier in 1963. The Fall Classic win by Los Angeles was their first since 1988, and sixth since moving from Brooklyn in 1958.
For Tampa Bay, it was their first Fall Classic appearance since 2008. It seems like shortening their team name from "Devil Rays" to just "Rays" has worked: From 1998-2007 they had never made it to the postseason, let alone Fall Classic. In the thirteen years since, the Tampa Bay Rays have reached the postseason six times, including two trips to the grand finale.
Snell had nothing to be ashamed of. In addition to leading all pitchers in WHIP in the 2020 World Series, Blake topped 'em all in K's with 18 (10 IP). Clayton Kershaw, who finally wrote his name next to Sandy Koufax among Dodger lefty greats to win the World Series, had won both his starts, but only fanned 14 batters in 11 2/3 innings pitched.
References
Morissey, Scott C. 114 World Series in 1 Book. Updated ed., Pandamonium Publishing House, 2020.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. https://www.baseball-reference.com/. 09 Jul. 2021.
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