It was Blake Snell bobblehead night Saturday at Dodger Stadium but the Atlanta Braves spoiled the left-hander’s season debut with a 7-2 win.
Making his first major-league appearance since the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Snell showed rust early, giving up a leadoff single to Mauricio Dubón and walking Drake Baldwin. Ozzie Albies’ bunt single loaded the bases and after Matt Olson struck out, Dubon scored from third on Austin Riley’s fielder’s choice to shortstop. Snell struck out Michael Harris II to end the inning on his 25th pitch.
“First outing back, stuff was good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Snell’s performance. “There were lots of swings and misses in there. You’re gonna get unlucky with some hits, but give them credit for putting the ball in play. There were a couple bad walks in there that extended innings, but this is something to build off of.”
Atlanta loaded the bases again in the second and Albies poked a two-run single to left. Two more runs scored on Olson’s single to right and after an inning and a half the Dodgers trailed 5-0. In the bottom of the inning, Eli White made a sprinting catch on the warning track in right field to rob Max Muncy of extra bases.
Snell started the season on the injured list with left shoulder fatigue and was brought back from his rehab assignment early to replace Tyler Glasnow, who was placed on the injured list Friday with back spasms. Snell gave up four earned runs on six hits, with two walks and five strikeouts over three innings and 77 pitches.
“Even with all the injuries, there’s no excuse,” Snell said. “I feel really good and I wanted this start. As far as how it came together, I don’t know how I feel about that.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts talks to pitcher Blake Snell during a 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
While Snell struggled, Atlanta’s Spencer Strider was locked in from the start, giving up one hit and striking out eight batters in six innings before being relieved by Dylan Lee.
“Tip your cap to Strider,” Roberts said. “He flooded the zone with his fastball, he’d get behind and he just had his way.”
National League East front-runner Atlanta (27-13) widened its gap to eight games over Washington while the Dodgers dropped to 24-15 and saw their National League West lead narrowed to one game over San Diego, which beat St. Louis 4-2 earlier in the day.
Jack Dreyer, who relieved Snell, gave up one hit in 1⅓ innings before being relieved by Edgardo Henriquez, who walked Riley and gave up an RBI double to Harris — the fifth hit in two days for the 2022 NL rookie of the year. Henriquez went 1⅔ innings before Paul Gervase yielded an RBI single to Baldwin.
“In Blake’s case, just getting back into a major league game knowing your stuff is still good,” Roberts said. “Coming off rehab you wanna know you’re efficient and that questioned was answered.”
One night after dealing Braves ace Chris Sale his second loss of the season, the Dodgers’ offense did not wake up until the ninth inning.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani singles down the left-field line during the eighth inning against the Braves on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani went one for four with a single and two strikeouts. Freddie Freeman had two fly outs and a groundout before Dalton Rushing took his place at first in the seventh.
The Dodgers avoided their second shutout loss of the season and finally gave the crowd of 50,209 reason to cheer in the ninth when Andy Pages belted a two-run home run — his ninth of the season — off reliever Reynaldo Lopez.
“If you look at the totality over the last month, yes, we’ve struggled, but Andy’s been a constant,” Roberts said. “Every at-bat’s important. He’s still swinging a hot bat. It absolutely carries over.”
Players on both teams played with heavy hearts following the death of former Braves manager Bobby Cox at the age of 84 on Saturday.
Freeman, in his fifth season of a six-year, $162-million deal with the Dodgers, talked about Cox before the game.
“I woke up to the news this morning,” he said. “It’s a sad day in Braves country and all of baseball. My favorite memory of Bobby is seeing joy on his face when he saw my 6-year-old. He had our backs. He wanted to win as much as you do. What stands out is the genuine care he had for every person in that clubhouse.
“My first day of spring training I walk in and he joked ‘Why did it take you so long to get to the big leagues?’ He cared about the 19-year-old and 40-year-old the same way. I have an autographed Bobby Cox jersey at home.”
Cox’s death came just four days after the death of Ted Turner, who owned the Braves from 1976 to 2007.
Note: Left-hander Justin Wrobleski (5-0) is set to start the series finale Sunday afternoon against Braves righty Bryce Elder (3-1). “I feel OK — we’ve got Justin going tomorrow and we have to lean on him,” Roberts said. “We’ll probably make another move to get another arm.”
