Padres’ Blake Snell: ‘Nothing is changing’ with how he pitches to Phillies’ Bryce Harper

SAN DIEGO — When Padres starter Blake Snell hit his childhood friend, Bryce Harper, on the left hand with a 97 mph fastball on June 25, he had a productive discussion with the Phillies star after the game.

“I’ve been playing against Blake since we were 10 or 11 years old,” Harper said at the time. “I know there was no ill will behind that at all. It’s part of the game. The inside pitch is part of the game. It just got away from him.”

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There was no ill will, but the pitch certainly had consequences. Harper missed two months of the season, and has just started to look like his normal self, offensively.

Snell said he plans to pitch to Harper the same as he would in any other scenario.

“Never had any intent to hit him,” Snell said on Tuesday before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. “Still don’t. It’s pitching. I’m going to pitch how I pitch. If I hit him, I’m sorry. I’m not trying. You’re a really good hitter. I’ve got to throw the ball in, I’ve got to throw it away, mix it up. Going to continue to pitch like I pitch. Nothing is changing.”

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Snell will face Harper when he starts Game 2 of the NLCS for the Padres at 4:35 p.m. Wednesday.

“It is what it is,” Harper said Monday when asked how it will feel to face Snell. “It’s two players going at it.”

Reliever David Robertson, who injured himself while celebrating a Harper home run in Game 2 of the wild-card series, was placed back on the postseason roster on Tuesday morning. As a corresponding move, reliever Nick Nelson was removed from the postseason roster.

Manager Rob Thomson said on Monday that Robertson wouldn’t be added to the roster unless he was a “full go.” The decision to add him was made on Monday night after a series of workouts that afternoon.

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“[Pitching coach] Caleb [Cotham] said [his bullpen session] was really good,” Thomson said. “Then I got outside for his [fielding practice] and when I first got out there, it looked like he was a little ginger on it. But as time went on, it got better and better and better, and finally the last play he made was a bunt, the third base line, and he fielded it nice and easy.

“Trainers checked him out, checked him out again [Tuesday] morning, said he felt good, so we feel comfortable putting him on the roster.”

Thomson said it’s possible he puts Robertson in lower-leverage spots to start out, since he hasn’t pitched in nine days. But the way he’ll deploy him is still up in the air.

Nelson has made two postseason appearances in his career, both for the Yankees, in Games 2 and 3 of the 2020 ALDS. He has yet to pitch for the Phillies this postseason. Thomson said the Phillies removed Nelson because they need pitchers who can give them length.

“[It was] just the fact that we needed length because we’re going to need a starter on the fourth game, plus any extra-inning games we’re going to need length,” Thomson said. “[Noah] Syndergaard, [Bailey] Falter, [Kyle] Gibson, those were the guys we really needed for length.”