\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure the guys kind of felt the velocity a little bit more,\u201d said Miguel Rojas, one of just a handful of Dodgers who spoke to the media after the loss. \u201cBut there\u2019s nothing that we can do. That\u2019s not going to be an excuse for us to underperform.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may not be an excuse. But it could be an omen.<\/p>\n
This World Series is the fifth in which a team that swept its best-of-seven LCS, as the Dodgers did, faced a team that needed to go seven games to win its series, as Toronto did. The team that swept and got the break lost each of the four previous World Series, winning just two of 18 games.<\/p>\n
Dodger manager Dave Roberts dismissed that history Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t think the week layoff had anything to do with tonight,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were rested. I thought we were in a good spot. We had a 2-0 lead. So I don\u2019t think that had anything to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Blake Snell, the pitcher who gave up that lead, brushed off the break as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no excuses. I need to be better,\u201d said Snell, who went 10 days between starts, his longest break since coming off the injured list in August. \u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a month off. Find a way to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t against the Blue Jays. After averaging 16 pitches an inning in 14 previous starts, he needed 29 to get through the first inning Friday. And after giving up two runs and six hits in 21 innings this postseason, he gave up five runs and eight hits in just five-plus innings in Toronto, with two of those runs coming on Dalton Varsho\u2019s fourth-inning home run, the only homer Snell has conceded to a left-handed hitter this year.<\/p>\n
Emmet Sheehan, who followed Snell to the mound, hadn\u2019t pitched in two weeks. He had his worst outing of the year, facing four batters and watching three of them score.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt good going into the game. I felt the same as I have been,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought I made some good pitches, and they made some really good swings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
A prolonged break can affect pitchers more than hitters because after throwing with a slightly fatigued arm all season, they suddenly feel fresh and strong and their pitches lose some of their movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to feel too good. You feel too good, you try to throw too hard because you feel good. And it doesn\u2019t go where you want it,\u201d said Will Klein, who mopped up for the Dodgers, pitching a scoreless eighth inning. \u201c[The ball] doesn\u2019t go where you want it to because you\u2019re used to pitching a little down, like 90 or 95%. You\u2019re never really at 100.<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s such a thing [as] too fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klein\u2019s last appearance in a big-league game was a month ago; since then he\u2019s been working out at the Dodgers\u2019 facility in Arizona. He said the team tried to keep the rest of their pitchers in their familiar routine with bullpen sessions or simulated games, but it\u2019s not the same as throwing in high-leverage situations against opposing hitters in a World Series game before 44,353 fans, as Snell, Sheehan and Klein had to do Friday.<\/p>\n
And the history shows the Dodgers aren\u2019t the first team who have been broken by the break.<\/p>\n