San Diego Padres: The strange case of Blake Jekyll and Mr. Snell

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde posits that human beings have an equal tendency towards good and evil. In the case of Blake Snell and the San Diego Padres, that equal tendency between being good and horrifically awful is evident.

Such was the case during his outing on Wednesday. Snell cruised through the first three innings, allowing two hits, although one of those was a solo homer to Jose Ramirez, while striking out three batters. He threw just 36 pitches in the first three innings and appeared to be in control.

The duality of Blake Snell appears again for San Diego Padres

Then the fourth inning happened. Snell allowed homers to the first two batters of the inning and things did not get any better. He recorded just one out in the inning, leaving with the bases loaded and having thrown 43 pitches in the inning. That one run deficit had ballooned to four runs by the time he departed.

In the end, Snell was charged six runs over those 3.1 innings, giving up eight hits, including three homers, while striking out four. This marks the eighth time this year that Snell has allowed at least three runs without making it through the sixth inning.

At the same time, he has had flashes of brilliance. Snell has six starts where he has allowed two runs or fewer over six innings. While he has not pitched into the seventh inning in any of his starts, the Padres would certainly take that production. It is just a matter of the consistency being there.

That consistency is the problem. Snell has outings where he can be brilliant. That can last for multiple appearances at times. But it all eventually falls apart. Sometimes, such as on Wednesday, both sides appear in the same game. He can go from Blake Jekyll to Mr. Snell in the blink of an eye, and vice versa.

Blake Snell can be really good or horrifically awful. On Wednesday, the San Diego Padres pitcher was both in the span of a few innings.