Welcome to Box Score Banter, your daily dose of the previous day’s games, with a preview of what’s to come. All season stats are entering yesterday’s games.
Snell You Later
Padres 6, Nationals 0
| IP | H | ER | BB | K | |
| Snell | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Okay, yes, it’s the Nationals. We should acknowledge that up front. Okay, actually, before we even get to Snell lets play a game:
Do you know the first name of the Nationals 1, 2, 7, or 8 hitters? The last guy even gets a first initial in there to help you out. If you do, congrats, you’re a real sick bastard. I count myself among you. Also: in before a Nats fan tells me Meneses is hitting .400 in the comments.
But back to Snell, who, for the second straight year, has ripped off a string of starts that remind of us how he won the AL Cy Young award once upon a time, and why he was so highly regarded at the time of the Padres’ trade for him. When he did this last year, our own Brian Menéndez chronicled what spurred the change, noting a simplified approach was paying off in spades. From Brian’s article:
So I was curious if it was more of the same this year:
A little bit of yes and a little bit of no, as it turns out. He hasn’t curtailed the use of his curveball in ‘22 as much as he did in ‘21, but both hot streaks do seem to coincide with a near-complete shelving of his changeup.
There’s some irony in that it doesn’t actually appear that it has anything to do with Snell’s changeup. Well, in ‘21 it might have: batters hit .429 off the cambio, to go with a .595 SLG. But that’s not the case this year, with hitters managing a paltry .182 average against, with no extra base hits. No, this year, at least it seems his success is about moving away from the fastball. Hitters are smacking it around at a robust .304 clip, and slugging just shy of .500 off it (not including Sunday’s game).
Snell is still a majority-fastball pitcher, but it’s worth noting that since he began this run of quality on July 1, he’s only really had one blip, and it was an outing where he leaned more heavily on the heater: a 3 ⅔ inning start in Coors Field, where he walked six and gave up five earned. He threw 60% fastballs in that one. Outside of his following start against the Mets, Snell has avoiding cracking even 55% fastballs throughout this run (including Sunday’s game against the Nats).
Earlier in the season Snell was once again experimenting with a changeup and tended to alternate which breaking ball he was leaning on in a given start. Since July though (really, since his June 25th start), he’s been willing to feed batters a heavy diet of both breaking balls, and that seems to be doing the trick.
Other Notable Showings
Gold: Drew Rasmussen (8.1, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K)
Félix Hernández holds on to his crown a bit longer, as Jorge Mateo broke up the perfect game leading off the top of the ninth inning with a ringing double. Rasmussen would yield the run on a wild pitch, giving up the shutout, too. Still, it was a virtuoso performance against a feisty Orioles team, and it gave the Rays a bit of breathing room in the Wild Card race (but only a bit).
Silver: Christian Walker (4-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI)
Walker continues to produce in relative anonymity—how many folks were tuning in to the D’Backs/Rockies series? After a slow and unlucky start, Walker is all the way up to a 114 OPS+ (before Sunday’s game), quickly approaching his 126 DRC+ on the season.
Bronze: Brady Singer (6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K)
Singer has been on a tear since mid-July, posting a 1.95 ERA in five starts heading into Sunday’s game against a red-hot Dodgers team and lineup. He silenced them in short order, allowing just the one hit and stifling any potential rallies with authority. Brian Menéndez wrote this offseason about why his sinker might just enable a breakout.
What’s Next
Fourteen games on a Monday, including an afternoon game thanks to a doubleheader! Folks, this is living.
Monday, August 15
SD (RHP Joe Musgrove) @ MIA (RHP Sandy Alcantara), 6:40 pm ET
Can I interest you in the best pitching matchup of the night? Probably of the week?
TB (TBD) @ NYY (RHP Gerrit Cole), 7:05 pm ET
If it’s playoff stakes that get you in the mood more than dominant pitching, well…We don’t know who the Rays are throwing, but Gerrit Cole still hangs around for the latter bit. As to the former, well, this is a crucial game for the Rays, so you can expect something of a playoff atmosphere between the division rivals.
BAL (RHP Kyle Bradish) @ TOR (LHP Yusei Kikuchi), 7:07 pm ET
Okay, if you want just the playoff implications with none of the quality pitching, we still have you covered. Bradish has a 6.42 ERA (though DRA thinks he’s okay). Kikuchi has a 5.13 ERA (and DRA just nods wearily). Both of these teams need this game. Let’s get weird.
NYM (RHP Carlos Carrasco) @ ATL (RHP Spencer Strider), 7:20 pm ET
You might feel as though the Mets and Braves are always playing against each other, and you would be correct. It’s a weird quirk of the schedulers, but they booked these two teams to play each other for the entire month of August. OK, they probably both play the Marlins at some point, too, but the human brain is designed to flush out those memories the way it does dreams.
HOU (RHP Jose Urquidy) @ CHW (RHP Johnny Cueto), 8:10 pm ET
Did you know the White Sox have won three in a row despite losing Tim Anderson to injury? Of course not, they were playing the Tigers so it barely counts. Going from a series against Detroit to Houston has to qualify as some sort of whiplash, which also would put six members of the White Sox on the IL.
LAD (LHP Julio Urías) @ MIL (RHP Freddy Peralta), 8:10 pm ET
The Dodgers will try to get back to their winning ways, while the Brewers will try to stop smarting from giving up two home runs in the same game to Albert Pujols. Peralta hasn’t thrown more than five innings since returning, but has been solid, if not spectacular, since rejoining the rotation.
SEA (RHP Luis Castillo) @ LAA (RHP Shohei Ohtani), 9:38 pm ET
Remember all the way up at the top when I suggested Musgrove/Alcantara was the best pitching matchup of the night and possibly the week. What a fool. What an absolute idiot.
Thank you for reading
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