\u201cDefinitely needed to pitch today,\u201d Snell said of his first start in a week and a half. \u201cDefinitely showed that. I was trying to go up and in, I was missing up and away. Even the last pitch of the game, I try to go up and in and miss right down the middle. I don\u2019t know the last time I did that. It\u2019s been a while.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Dodgers<\/a> (99-62) entered locked in as a No. 2 seed for the playoffs. So, the stakes of their last two games of the regular season boiled down to health and preparation for the postseason. There was no better example of that give-and-take than Snell\u2019s five-hit, one-run start.<\/p>\n Because Snell left his previous start with tightness in his left groin, the Dodgers planned for a short outing Saturday, prioritizing his health for the postseason.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were confident,\u201d Roberts said of Snell\u2019s recovery from the injury. \u201cBut it\u2019s still good to see it. And it\u2019s good also that we got it out of the way, that rust off \u2014 versus whatever game in the postseason, then he\u2019s rusty, and you\u2019ve got to kind of pick up the pieces in a playoff game. So I thought today it was really best-case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n The only run Snell gave up was the result of a double, stolen base and sacrifice fly in the third. He had three strikeouts and no walks.<\/p>\n Snell\u2019s changeup was about two miles per hour faster than usual, something he wants to address before his next start. And he wants to hone the release on his curveball. But his slider, the pitch he would be most worried about if his groin injury wasn\u2019t resolved, had promising velocity and shape. <\/p>\n \u201cTo throw a 92 [mph] with good horizontal break, and to see the trust I had in the back leg when throwing that, that\u2019s a really good sign,\u201d Snell said. <\/p>\n Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell throws against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning Saturday.<\/p>\n (Jeff Chiu \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n Snell said he thinks he\u2019s fully past the injury, and didn\u2019t even think about it during the start. <\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely happy about where I\u2019m at,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, it\u2019s a big week for me. Catch has to be great, bullpens have to be great. I\u2019ve really got to focus on getting in my legs, and the consistency of every throw. So to be able to pitch today and learn all of that is bigger than I could ever really express.\u201d <\/p>\n Snell, who missed time because of a late spring training build-up and arthroscopic surgery in May to remove loose bodies from his left elbow, finished the regular season with just 42\u2154 innings pitched. But he posted an impressive 1.90 ERA in that time.<\/p>\n The team considered replacing Snell\u2019s start Saturday with a live batting practice session, Roberts said, which would have still given Snell feedback from hitters, but in a more controlled environment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave him and the training staff every out to do so,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut there was a lot of confidence that he\u2019s in a great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Snell\u2019s recent workload was another reason for the Dodgers to be conservative with his workload Saturday. Over the past two weeks, he\u2019s only thrown one inning.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there\u2019s a balance between getting your work in, making sure you feel good coming out of it,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cEven for example, I could\u2019ve pushed Tarik<\/a> [Skubal<\/a> in his start Friday], given his efficiency. But to me, to what end?\u201d<\/p>\n Snell should be full-go for the playoffs, Roberts said. But count Snell among the Dodgers players who can benefit from the wild-card bye.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is still an important one,\u201d Roberts said of Snell\u2019s start Saturday, \u201cto go into it feeling good, to then take that extra six, seven, eight days.\u201d<\/p>\n Six to eight days off would line Snell up to start Game 2 or 3 of the National League Division Series. But Roberts declined to tip his hand on rotation order. The days off give the Dodgers extra flexibility to line up their pitching.<\/p>\n Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a home run for the Dodgers in the third inning Saturday against the Giants.<\/p>\n (Jeff Chiu \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re looking at, the first series, who could pitch on regular [rest], who needs extra, how potentially the next series lines up,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHow you can … maximize those four guys. And I do think with those four guys, it doesn\u2019t matter the opponent, so that\u2019s not a variable.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts also said alternating between right- and left-handers was not a variable.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, you could put them all in a hat, and you could make a case for any order you put them in,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790480414_625_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mookie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790480415_908_.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The result of Blake Snell\u2019s final pitch Saturday, a fastball that San Francisco Giants third baseman Shay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[432,187333,217,426,423,4468,48,52,51,10561,47,50,49,8841,2504,424,146493,595,168309,315,187332],"class_list":["post-477079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-blake-snell","tag-checkup","tag-day","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-inning","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-left-field","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-playoff","tag-regular-season","tag-roberts","tag-rotation-order","tag-saturday","tag-skubal","tag-time","tag-win-no"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}