The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Blake Snell to be an ace of their starting rotation, and with that came the honor of taking the ball in the Dodger Stadium opener.
It was a game Snell lobbied to pitch amid Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki being the clear choices for the Tokyo Series, though the left-hander recognized the Dodgers also had a strong option in Tyler Glasnow for their first home game.
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“Good to get the first one out of the way. Excited, just a lot of emotions. I was really looking forward to that, but a lot to learn,” Snell said after facing the Detroit Tigers.
“Got away with some pitches, didn’t get away with some pitches. But overall, I liked what I learned today. Even seeing the swings, the contact, get in the zone a little bit more. The misses weren’t off by a lot, but they were still misses. So that’s an improvement.”
Snell held the Tigers to just one run despite allowing five hits and issuing four walks. Each of the Tigers’ hits was a single, and within that was plenty of soft contact.
Detroit scored their only run off Snell on a wild pitch, and he held them to 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
“I like to think that when the runners are in scoring position that I find a way to get out of it. I think my only 1-2-3 was the first inning, and then after that it was a lot of fighting to get outs,” he said. “But I’m excited about where I’m at and a lot to learn, so excited about that.
“I could kind of tell what they were doing, just by their takes and reads. So there’s a lot that I learned there that’s going to help me moving forward, facing Atlanta next. Just continue to get better. It’s the first game, so excited about it.”
Blake Snell appreciates Dodgers fans
Getting to pitch for the Dodgers at home was one of the many factors Snell highlighted during his introductory press conference, and reality largely met expectations on Thursday.
“It was cool feeling the energy and how much the fans love the team,” Snell said. “Just getting ready, how encouraging they were before the start, how much they showed love to me, that was pretty cool.
“Then you go out there and you want to do everything you can to win.”
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