Blake Snell has golden chance to shift Dodgers legacy after irrational Game 3 roasts

With Will Klein chugging through the top of the 18th in Game 3, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, just two days removed from his second consecutive complete game, volunteered to pitch and headed out to the Dodgers' bullpen to warm up.

The Dodgers didn't end up calling on Yamamoto — Klein got out of the top of the 18th with a swinging strikeout to put himself in Dodgers' history books, no matter the outcome of the series — but his willingness was all it took to have even the Dodgers' fiercest haters giving him a hand.

It saved LA from certain disaster, too. Klein was the last reliever left in the bullpen, and Dave Roberts said after the game that he would've sent Miguel Rojas out to pitch the 19th had Yamamoto not volunteered.

However, for some fans, his willingness to step in when the Dodgers needed him most reflected poorly on someone else. Blake Snell, the Dodgers starter on the most days of rest and who wasn't scheduled to pitch in Game 4, didn't make himself an option.

Roberts said that Snell had pitched a bullpen that afternoon, and the Dodgers desperately need him to be as fresh as possible for his Game 5 start on Wednesday night. Let's hope that this one doesn't go as badly as Game 1 did.

Blake Snell's World Series Game 5 start will be key in redeeming himself in the eyes of Dodgers fans

After Snell's eight-inning shutout against the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS, it was hard to imagine how anyone could be better. And then Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a one-run complete game. And then he did it again in the World Series, on the heels of a five-inning, five-run start for Snell in Game 1. And then he volunteered to come out of the bullpen on two days' rest.

But baseball fans are fickle. If he gets back to NLCS form in Game 5, the perceived failure of not volunteering himself in Game 3 will be forgotten. If he pitches the same way as he did in Game 1...

A Blake Snell-Trey Yesavage matchup is still one that will have fans betting on the Dodgers despite how Game 1 went, but if the Dodgers head to Toronto one game away from elimination, Snell will have even more to answer for than a couple of bad starts.