Dodgers News: Insider Predicts L.A. Wins Over Snell and Musgrove

Dodgers insider David Vassegh expects the Dodgers to knock Blake Snell out of Game 3 early on their way to a four-game series win.

Dodger insider David Vassegh was on AM570's Petros & Money show on Thursday afternoon talking about the National League Division Series, which is tied at one game apiece between the Dodgers and Padres.

As the series moves to San Diego for Game 3, the Dodgers will be facing Padres starter Blake Snell, whom they famously knocked out of their World Series-clinching Game 6 victory in 2020.

Vassegh had a bold prediction for how the rest of the series is going to go.

“I expect the Dodgers to close this out in four games. I know everybody continues to point back to Game 6 of the 2020 World Series — Blake Snell against the Dodgers — and yes, he pitched great. But the facts are, this year, Blake Snell has not pitched that great against the Dodgers. When he’s been in there he’s been good, but he’s not in there that long. The pitch count gets run up really high.

"So I believe if Blake Snell is in that game tomorrow night past the fifth inning, that means things are not going so well for the Dodgers, meaning Blake Snell has a manageable pitch count to allow him to go past the 5th inning. If it’s a typical Blake Snell outing, he should be out of that game tomorrow night by the 5th inning, and you would hope the Dodgers would have more answers against the Padres bullpen.”

Snell has averaged nearly 21 pitches per inning in his three starts against Los Angeles this year, so Vassegh is on the right track as far as the game plan against him. And while L.A. hasn't yet had much success against the Padres bullpen, if they can put up a few runs on Snell and then a few more on the pen, they can head into Game 4 with a chance to make Vassegh's prediction come true.