Blake Snell walked back onto the mound at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night and looked like he had never left.
The two-time Cy Young winner returned from the injured list and struck out 10 Kansas City Royals batters over six innings of one-run ball, allowing just three hits and one walk. He threw 55 of his 84 pitches for strikes. The Dodgers won 5-4, their second straight victory, and improved their NL West-leading record to 72-48.
According to Yahoo Sports, it was only Snell's second start of the season for Los Angeles. He missed the first six weeks of the year with an injury, then went down again and underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow, keeping him out since May 9.
Snell is 33 years old and has dealt with injuries and inconsistency throughout his career. That pattern has limited how much teams have been able to count on him, even in years when he has pitched at an elite level. His 2023 Cy Young season with the San Diego Padres, for example, came in just 32 starts across two separate stints on the injured list.
When healthy, he ranks among the most difficult pitchers in baseball to hit. Tuesday's performance was a reminder of that. Ten strikeouts in six innings against a major league lineup is not a casual return from surgery. It is the kind of outing that changes how a team thinks about October.
The Royals, sitting below the Dodgers in the standings, were not the stiffest competition available. Snell's next start, scheduled for Sunday at home against the Milwaukee Brewers, will be a clearer test of where he actually stands. The Brewers have been one of the better offensive teams in the National League this season.
For the Dodgers, the bigger picture matters. They are chasing a third straight championship, and their roster has been built to win in the postseason. Adding a fully healthy Snell to a rotation that already includes some of the best arms in baseball would make them significantly harder to beat in a short series. A starter who can generate 10 strikeouts in his first outing back from elbow surgery is exactly the kind of depth that teams covet heading into the fall.
Whether Snell can stay on the field through October is the question that has followed him for most of his career. Tuesday night did not answer it. It only made the Dodgers, and their opponents, more interested in what comes next.
