LOS ANGELES – The optimism leading into Blake Snell’s first start back in nearly three months went beyond the usual confidence one might expect when a two-time Cy Young Award winner returns to action. It was as if both Snell and his manager knew he’d come out looking like a completely different version of the pitcher who allowed five runs in three innings in his only previous start of the season. "It’s the best I’ve felt in three years, by far," Snell claimed 12 days before his return.
"He’s on a mission," Dave Roberts added assuredly. It certainly looked that way Tuesday night in front of a crowd of 49,958 fans at Dodger Stadium, where Snell exhibited no signs of rust in his return from elbow surgery as he lifted a scuffling Dodgers club in need of a pick-me-up. Even after two comeback victories on Monday and Tuesday, the Dodgers have won just 13 of their last 30 games.
Their bullpen has been unreliable. Their bats have been inconsistent. Earlier this week, Roberts lamented the way his star-studded offense had gotten "bullied" by fastballs far too often over this stretch of substandard play.
And yet, Snell’s 10-strikeout return provided a reminder of why any potential concerns about the Dodgers’ aging roster might not matter if this rotation is upright and whole by October. They have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last year’s World Series MVP. They have depth arms in Roki Sasaki, Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer, who could shift to bullpen roles in October.
Shohei Ohtani continues to play catch with the hopes of returning to the mound before season’s end. Tyler Glasnow has started his rehab assignment and could return by month’s end. And, of course, they now have two two-time Cy Young Award winners after their deal for Tarik Skubal at the deadline.
Skubal labored through five innings in his home debut Monday but kept the Dodgers close enough to storm back for the win. Snell, meanwhile, overpowered Kansas City’s lineup one day later. "We needed to win tonight, and we needed to win a series, and it started with him," Roberts said.
"So I thought from pitch one, you know, he exuded that, and we fed off of that." Roberts’ goal was to get Snell through five innings, but Snell was thinking bigger. While texting back and forth with Roberts before the start, he assuredly told his manager he could go six. And then he did.
The optimism before Snell’s outing was justified. He struck out the side in the first inning, maintained velocity throughout the night, walked just one and surrendered soft contact when the Royals did manage to put the bat on the ball. With the game still tied after five innings, no one was getting warm.
Amid the team’s slump, Roberts demanded more urgency, both from his club and himself. Tuesday night provided the latest example of it. Roberts knew Snell was his best option to return for the sixth, even if pushing him beyond 80 pitches wasn’t part of the plan.
The left-hander made quick work of his final frame, needing just 13 pitches that inning and 84 pitches in total to navigate through six. The Dodgers' offense then responded in the late innings again, making up for more shaky bullpen play. It was another instance of the urgency that had been lacking.
"The last two nights," Roberts said, "is what we're looking for." Snell was calmer than he thought he would be in his first start back at Dodger Stadium since May 9, when he labored through three innings on 77 pitches against the Braves. Soon after that start, he underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his sore elbow. The procedure seemed to do more than simply address that compromised body part.
Snell believes the bone chips in his elbow were also contributing to pain in his shoulder, which had caused him problems most of last year, and pressing on a nerve. For the last couple of years, the ring finger and pinky finger on his throwing hand had felt numb. "They took [the loose bodies] out, and I could feel my hand completely," Snell told me.
"My shoulder pain went completely away." Shortly after the procedure, he started to regain his range of motion and the extension in his arm that had been lacking. That led to more swing and miss at the top of the zone with his fastball and the ability to consistently finish his curveball and tunnel it in a way he couldn’t before the surgery. On Tuesday, after laughing off a poor rehab appearance in Salt Lake City — during which the elevation wreaked havoc on his secondary offerings — Snell bounced back by getting 15 swings and misses from Kansas City hitters.
The Royals swung eight times at his curveball and whiffed on five of them while watching another five breaking balls go by for strikes. "That’s me having the range to move the ball how I want," Snell told me. "I just haven’t had it in a couple years.
Everyone’s like, ‘Oh the changeup.’ I’m like, ‘If the curveball’s on…." Snell believes that pitch in particular could be much more of a difference-maker this season. "The curveball’s finally coming back to how I remember it being," he said. "It was always a pitch that was a wipeout.
I could throw it, but now I’m finally releasing it where I need to release it, and I’m kind of releasing everything in the same slot out in front." The performance served as a reminder of his dominance when he’s right. "I think the biggest thing was just being aggressive," Snell said. "Be in the zone, attack.
I know how good my stuff is, so I don’t want to just be nibbling and then complaining like, ‘Oh, that’s a strike.’ I didn’t want to do any of that again like I did versus Atlanta." "That’s the Snell that we’re used to seeing," added Max Muncy, who walked the Dodgers off with a win Tuesday night, "and hopefully we have him for the next two, three months, for the long run." It’s the version Snell is expecting to see from himself, as well, no longer concerned about his health or pitching through pain, the way he did through much of last season while still displaying flashes of brilliance. "I can just pitch and focus on pitching," Snell said. "That’s pretty cool."
