LOS ANGELES — How important is a good first impression? That’s what Blake Snell was trying to figure out as he started his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his shoulder aching and the ink not quite dry on the premium free-agent contract he’d been seeking for years. A self-created urge to perform for his new team pushed him to pitch through discomfort, which he revealed only after he made two starts and went on the injured list.
Instead, he had to wait four months between starts at Dodger Stadium. In his second go-around at a first impression, he looked a lot more like the guy the Dodgers doubled down on their prodigious offseason spending to get. Over five dominant, scoreless innings in a 9-1 win against the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday night, the left-hander looked like the guy who has claimed two Cy Youngs, whose electric stuff is a certifiable ceiling-raiser.
Maybe he won’t punctuate getting a five-year, $182 million contract with a season worthy of consideration for a third trophy as one of the best pitchers in the sport. Instead, he could very well be the most important arm in getting the Dodgers where they want to be to repeat in October.
“I think for me, that whole first impression narrative is over,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday afternoon. “He needs to pitch well. … All he cares about, all I care about, is him pitching well. I don’t care about the contract. I care about winning. Now it’s time to just kind of win baseball games.”
Snell’s bothersome left shoulder is healthy. That much has been clear through two starts back from the injured list. He also appears to be gearing up for the kind of second-half run he had last summer for the San Francisco Giants, when he had a 1.45 ERA in 12 starts after the All-Star break to set up his big payday. This is what the Dodgers are hoping for.
“When Blake’s on, he’s really, really tough to hit,” said Michael Conforto, who was also Snell’s teammate in San Francisco. “As tough as anybody. It’s pretty close to what we were seeing last year when he was really, really dominant.”
Dodger Stadium’s subwoofers had hardly stopped reverberating to a Kendrick Lamar track by the time Snell completed a crisp, nine-pitch first inning that required just six pitches for his first two strikeouts. His fastball touched 98.4 mph to get out of the second inning. A Blue Jays lineup that entered the day striking out at the lowest clip in the sport (17.1 percent) fanned 10 times in just 21 hitters.
They flailed at breaking balls in the dirt. They chased fastballs above the letters. A changeup fooled Alejandro Kirk badly enough in the second inning that it brought the stout catcher to a knee. Another in the third inning fooled Ernie Clement badly enough that the bat flew at warp speed into the Dodgers dugout.
“Blake was Blake Snell,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “He had everything working. He executed the offspeed and executed his fastballs to spots early in the count. Caught hitters in between, and that’s kind of what he does.”
Catcher Dalton Rushing said Blake Snell had “everything working” in a 9-1 win over the Blue Jays. (Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
It wasn’t perfect. Snell lamented his fastball command, which faded as the start went along. He dealt with traffic, requiring 27 pitches and surviving a pair of base runners to get out of the third inning as he searched for mental cues to correct the issue. That ultimately cut his outing short, limiting him to 90 pitches over five innings, with room for much more.
“Just the fastball command,” Snell said. “If it’s better, then a lot changes.”
Still, it was more than good enough. The Dodgers paid Snell to whiff, getting the type of swing-and-miss they know will play in October. Snell got 18 of them on Saturday after 19 in his preceding start. The MLB all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings put on a showcase to change whatever impression four months on the shelf could create. The only runs he’s allowed in his return came on two home run balls that left George H. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and would’ve made it out of few others.
This is the version of Snell everyone envisioned.
“When you’re getting chase on balls that are out of the zone, it just speaks to his stuff looks like a strike,” Roberts said. “That’s one of Blake’s hallmarks, getting the swing-and-miss, the chase, and then when he needs to flood the zone and beat guys, he can do that, too.”
It’s also creating a situation in August that last year’s World Series champions would’ve envied when they were scrambling for starters. Their ideal rotation for October is currently healthy and largely rounding into form. Tyler Glasnow, an All-Star a year ago who threw his final pitch that season on Aug. 11, is back after a similarly long absence to Snell’s and is showcasing premium stuff. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was working his way back from shoulder trouble this time last year; now, the second-year starter (and first-time All-Star) could wind up on Cy Young ballots.
And add in Shohei Ohtani, whose buildup from a second major elbow surgery has gone brilliantly and who might be pitching the best of any of them right now. Emmet Sheehan is looking like a potential October weapon. There’s Snell, the free-agent addition who is back and pitching well. Even Clayton Kershaw, who threw his final pitch last year on Aug. 30, is pitching his way to a 3.14 ERA right now despite a fastball that sits below 90 mph on average.
“Honestly, right now, watching everybody, it’s a lot better than I thought we were going to be,” Snell said. “This staff’s stacked.”
It’s a position group that could carry the Dodgers down this stretch run, particularly as they wait around for their bullpen to get healthy.
“Every night you see the probables and you feel like (you) really have a chance to prevent runs,” Roberts said. “Then you look at the lineup and you feel we have an opportunity to score. Then you’ve got to go play the game. This is how we can go on a run.”
If Snell continues to look like this, it’ll be a more lasting impression than what he could have crafted in April.
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)