Blake Snell gave the Dodgers the reassurance they wanted Saturday at Oracle Park, working four innings in his last regular-season appearance after leaving his previous outing with tightness in his left groin. Los Angeles then edged San Francisco, 4-3, for its 99th victory of the season.
| Game | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | 4 | – | – |
| Giants | 3 | – | – |
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | SO | Pitches-Strikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blake Snell | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 77-50 |
Snell checks the last box
The Dodgers wanted Snell to get close to a normal workload, but not at the expense of his health. His 77 pitches provided enough of a test without stretching a late-September tuneup into something more demanding.
“There is a balance: get the necessary work, then make sure he comes out feeling right,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game.
That result quieted the biggest remaining question around a formidable October group that includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The National League Division Series opens Oct. 3 at Dodger Stadium, and Los Angeles can now turn from monitoring Snell to arranging its four starters.
A Game 1 decision with no easy wrong answer
Roberts has made clear that each member of the quartet carries a credible Game 1 case. “You could draw their names from a hat and defend virtually any sequence,” he said.
Rest could settle the order. The Dodgers used a six-man rotation through much of the season, leaving their starters familiar with five days between starts. Yamamoto has not made a start on shorter rest, though he did pitch on consecutive days while securing World Series MVP honors last year.
Skubal, Snell and Glasnow have all worked with four days of rest in their careers. If Yamamoto opens the Division Series, he would be lined up for a possible Game 5 while remaining on his customary schedule. Putting Skubal, Snell or Glasnow in Game 2 would leave that pitcher as a Game 5 option on four days’ rest.
For now, Snell’s final regular-season line supplied the human part of the answer: the left-hander came through his test, and the Dodgers have four healthy-looking arms to sort for October.
