Blake Snell outdueled as Dodgers fall to Tigers in another one-run game
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- The Dodgers dropped another one-run heartbreaker in Detroit, wasting Blake Snell’s five innings of one-run baseball as the Tigers walked off with a 2-1 win.
- Snell’s fourth start since elbow surgery featured early turbulence, a brief tunnel disappearance and a stretch of six straight strikeouts, but L.A.’s bats again failed to provide support.
- The Dodgers, losers of four of their last five one-run games, continued to squander chances, grounding into a bases-loaded double play and coming up feet short of a ninth-inning rally.
DETROIT — The same old story played out for the Dodgers on Saturday. They got a strong outing from their starting pitcher and an uninspiring performance from their offense, resulting in a close game.
This time the Dodgers lost, 2-1, despite left-hander Blake Snell’s five innings of one-run baseball.
The Dodgers’ last five games have been decided by one run. They’ve lost all but one of them.
“It is a toll, it is a ripple effect,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And it’s more on the pitching, where you feel like you can’t give up a run or we lose. And that’s not the way it should be, certainly with this offense. We’re using our leverage [relievers], a lot of guys, in big spots. So yeah, that’s the toll.
“But the offense knows that. They’re not blind to it. But that just doesn’t translate to hits and runs.”
It was Snell’s fourth game back from arthroscopic elbow surgery in May. He’s limited opponents to one run or none in every start. Saturday marked the first time he threw fewer than six innings since being activated this month.
Manager Dave Roberts did not call it a setback as the two-way star has been working to get back on the mound after lingering inflammation and soreness in his left knee.
He limited the Tigers to three hits and issued three walks. Four baserunners reached before Snell briefly left the game in the third inning.
Snell had cruised through the first two innings, a Texas leaguer into shallow right field the only blemish on an otherwise perfect beginning.
The third inning, however, started to go haywire. Snell walked Javier Báez, traditionally a free swinger, to open the frame. Tigers rookie Max Clark laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy lost control of the ball as he tried to throw to first, enabling Clark to reach base as Báez advanced to second.
Against Gleyber Torres, Snell left a changeup too far over the plate for a ground-rule double. The high hop over the yellow line on the right-field fence saved a run, sending Clark back to third, but the Tigers pulled ahead 1-0.
Snell threw two pitches to Hao-Yu Lee and then, after a conversation with home plate umpire Chris Guccione, headed off the field and disappeared down the dugout tunnel.
Snell later explained that he had a blister on the big toe of his left foot, which he covered with a bandage before the game. But by the third inning, it had moved under his foot.
“So anytime I was pushing, I was slipping,” Snell said. “And I thought if I kept doing that, I’m gonna hit somebody because I had no clue where the ball was going.”
He got permission from Guccione to leave the field to remove the bandage.
“My foot hurts more now, but, yeah, it definitely helped,” Snell said.
After inducing Lee to pop out and then issuing a walk, Snell struck out five straight. He finished with 10, tying his season high.
“Happy with the way I competed with runners on base,” Snell said after lamenting that a more passive approach inflated his pitch count. “Happy with the way I continue to just learn and develop throughout the at-bats on what I should do, what I don’t like, what I like. Overall didn’t give in and made pitches when I needed to.”
The Dodgers’ offense, however, failed to give him run support. Through five innings, they mustered only two baserunners against Tigers starter Keider Montero.
“I’m just trying to figure out solutions,” Roberts said of the offense. “We’re all frustrated. We know we should be better. But again, now it’s more of, what are we gonna do about it? So that’s kind of where my head is at. I do know, coming down on guys when guys are putting in the effort isn’t the answer. And then you’ve got to figure out, is it a process thing? Is it an approach thing? Is it a focus thing? Those are things I’m trying to figure out collectively, individually.”
In the sixth, they finally strung multiple hits together and got a run out of it. Alek Thomas led off with a double to left that ricocheted off the wall on a hop. Shohei Ohtani grounded out on a close play at first, moving Thomas to third. Then Freddie Freeman lined an RBI single to right.
The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.
The Dodgers went on to load the bases with one out. But, following a concerning pattern, they failed to squeeze any more runs out of the opportunity.
The Dodgers entered Saturday batting .211 with the bases loaded this month, putting them in the bottom third in the majors. When Tommy Edman grounded into a double play to end the sixth inning, it was their third with the bases loaded this month.
In the ninth, the Dodgers were a few feet from pulling ahead. With two outs and a runner on first, the Tigers brought in closer Kenley Jansen, the former Dodger, to face Teoscar Hernández.
Hernández fell behind in the count 0-and-2 and then sent a cutter for a ride to deep left-center. But Báez made an over-the-shoulder catch a few steps from the wall.
“I hit it good, not the best, but it happened to go to the farthest part of the ballpark,” Hernández said. “That’s the … luck that we have right now. But it’s part of the game.”
Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer took the mound for the bottom half and, with the bases loaded, gave up a walk-off single to McGonigle, whose deep drive bounced off the warning track and over the wall in left-center.
