Blake Snell turned in a dominant performance in his first start back from left elbow surgery to help the Los Angeles Dodgers win a second consecutive game against the Kansas City Royals.
The left-hander began his outing by striking out the side in the first inning and didn’t allow a baserunner until the top of the fourth. He wound up completing six innings of one-run ball and finished with 10 strikeouts.
“Yeah, it was good,” Snell said after the game. “I felt like Atlanta helped me a lot just with how it felt, the results. Pretty frustrating to have that as my only start, and then have to rehab, go through all that to come back.
“So yeah, just had a lot of information from that game to help me with this one on what I want to do differently and how I wanted to start. So definitely happy that I was more aggressive, more in the zone, and more just in control of my emotions for being the first one back.”
Snell showed excellent command of his fastball against the Royals, which allowed for his off-speed pitches to be more effective.
“I mean the reason why I’m good is the fastball,” Snell began. “It has really good characteristics, and I’m able to locate it where I want. And when I’m able to do that, it makes everything a lot better.
“And then not being predictable helps as well. But being able to locate the fastball, I thought I did pretty good. I think I could be a lot better, but yeah, definitely for game one, I’m happy with it.”
Snell feels as good physically as he has at any point since signing with the Dodgers, which he believes will allow him to be more aggressive and attack the strike zone.
“Yeah. I’m not worried when I pitch about other things. I can just pitch and focus on pitching,” Snell said. “So that’s pretty cool. Yeah, I like where I’m at.”
Dave Roberts praises Blake Snell
Manager Dave Roberts commended Snell for being efficient in his start against the Royals and giving the Dodgers an extra inning beyond what was planned.
“I think I saw what everyone saw,” Roberts said of Snell’s performance. “Just going after guys, being on the attack, knowing that he had to be efficient to give us length, given where our bullpen was at, and with the talent that he has, that’s what can happen.
“The fastball was really good, the curveball was really good, and his best secondary pitch, the changeup, was good, but it didn’t even really factor as much as the fastball and the curveball. He was fantastic tonight. We pushed him a little bit into the six and through the six, but just because he was so efficient.
“Certainly, that extra inning was huge for us.”
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