This Is Why Kevin Cash Pulled Blake Snell

Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, Blake Snell took the mound with his team down 2-0 in the NLCS and made one of the best postseason starts I’ve ever seen. For six scoreless innings, he was nearly unhittable. At one point, he set down 14 Brewers in a row, striking out nine of them. Only two baserunners separated Snell’s stretch from the historic postseason performances of Roy Halladay, or Don Larsen, or Josh Beckett. Both came in the second inning. Cooper Pratt fought off a 96.6-mph fastball up and in and rolled it, as if by radio control, through the 5-6 hole for a single. In baseball, results frequently bear only a tangential relationship to process — you will never find a better example of this. Snell’s only real foulup was a four-pitch walk, issued to Garrett Mitchell the batter before. Oh well, no one’s perfect. Except Don Larsen, I guess. Eighty pitches, 55 strikes, nine punchouts, two baserunners, zero runs. When Snell is imperfect, he’s one of baseball’s most frustrating pitchers. He nibbles, his command wavers. He’s wobbly and out of step and dissonant, like a high school marching band that’s just gotten its drill. FanGraphs Playoff Coverage Is for MembersYou must be a Member in order to read our postseason coverage. You can read our announcement here, but it's not the only reason you should consider becoming a Member. Membership includes:✓Ad-free browsing✓Unlimited FanGraphs & RotoGraphs articles✓Historical & platoon projections✓Leaderboard & player-page stat heatmaps✓One-click data exports✓Customizable player-page dashboards✓Dark & Classic site modes✓Weekly Members-only mailbag✓FanGraphs Walk-Off, your year in review✓Optional homepage photo removal✓Gift articles to non-Members✓Full postseason coverage