Manager Dave Roberts embraced Blake Snell on the dugout steps. Field coordinator Bob Geren applauded from beside him. Snell’s teammates hopped down from the railing to high-five him as he walked through the growing crowd.
It had been three months since he’d last started a major-league game. And in the Dodgers’ 5-4 walk-off win against the Royals in the 10th inning Tuesday, he was as sharp as the team could have hoped.
Before the game, Roberts set five innings as the goal, hoping to limit Snell to around 75-80 pitches.
The lefty turned in six innings, with 84 pitches. And he held the Royals to one run and three hits while striking out 10.
It was only Snell’s second start of the season, after a late build-up in spring training because of shoulder fatigue, a May season debut, and surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow.
Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s game, getting him back healthy and in a groove was vital for the Dodgers’ postseason ambitions.
To clear room on the roster to activate Snell, the Dodgers (72-48) optioned left-handed pitcher Charlie Barnes to triple A and transferred right-handed reliever Blake Treinen (right elbow inflammation) from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL. Though he has not begun a minor-league rehab assignment, Roberts said Treinen has not had a setback.
Snell kept the Royals off balance all night leaning on a fastball that had a little extra life to it, a curveball that generated a 63% whiff rate, and a changeup that was especially effective against right-handed hitters.
“When he’s going well, he’s not really thinking about his mechanics, and he’s really got a good rhythm,” Roberts said before the game. “And I think that when he’s not, and searching, the game kind of sort of comes to a standstill.”
With Snell on the mound Tuesday, the game moved along at a fast clip. Snell struck out the side in the first inning and retired the first 10 hitters he faced.
When he finally gave up back-to-back singles to the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone, the first was a soft line drive and the second a grounder that found a hole on the right side of the infield.
With runners on the corners and one out, he gave up the only run of his start, on a sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez.
The next inning, Snell worked around a leadoff hit — a blooper into shallow right field that speedy Tyler Tolbert stretched into a double — and stolen base to strand Tolbert at third.
Back out for the sixth, Snell retired the side in order. He finished his outing by getting Perez to chase a changeup below the zone and pop it up behind second base.
The back-and-forth intensified in the later innings.
The Dodgers only needed a second-inning solo homer from Mookie Betts and a two-run seventh-inning rally — which included an RBI double from left fielder Alex Call, who was in the starting lineup for the first time in three weeks — to pull ahead.
But the Royals tied the score in the eighth with a walk and three straight singles against Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips. Perez again recorded the clutch RBI.
Left-hander Jack Dreyer replaced Phillips and induced Carter Jensen to line out to center fielder Andy Pages. But Pages dropped the ball on the transfer, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
The Dodgers countered in the bottom half of the inning with a tying RBI single from Betts. And after a quick ninth inning on both sides, the Dodgers embarked into extra innings for the second time in four days.
And again, the Dodgers prevailed, this time on Max Muncy’s walk-off single.
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