Three starts, three months of rehab
Blake Snell has thrown in exactly two big league games this season. Monday night in Denver makes three. The Dodgers left-hander opens a three-game set against Colorado carrying a 0-1 record and a 5.00 ERA, numbers that mean almost nothing given the sample.
Elbow surgery cost him three months. What he showed last Tuesday suggests the arm is fine: six innings, one run on three hits, 10 strikeouts. Los Angeles lost anyway, 5-4 in 10 innings to Kansas City.
“The biggest thing was being aggressive. Staying in the zone, attacking,” Snell said afterward. He punched out the first three hitters he saw that night.
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Colorado is 8-8 in August, and that matters
The Dodgers are not exactly rolling into this. They have gone 5-10 this month and dropped three of four to Milwaukee. Los Angeles is still chasing the best record in the National League, but August has been a slog.
Colorado has the worst record in the league and is trying to dodge a second straight 100-loss season. They are also 8-8 in August, their only month at .500 all year. Snell has seen them plenty, 14 career appearances, four wins, two losses, a 3.04 ERA.
Tomoyuki Sugano goes for the Rockies at 12-5 and 4.43. Against Los Angeles specifically the line falls apart: 0-3 with an 8.49 ERA, two of those losses coming this season. He is still Colorado’s best starter, which says something about Colorado.
The kids are hitting
Zac Veen, Connor Norby and Adael Amador have all come up from the minors since the last homestand. Norby, picked up from Miami at the deadline, has started the last five games. Amador went deep Sunday in a 13-7 win at San Francisco to close out a 5-4 road trip.
Veen hit .118 with one homer in a 12-game cup of coffee last year. This time has gone better, including a home run Friday against the Giants. Snell is walking into a lineup that has found something, on a field where mistakes travel.
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