Blake Snell pitched into the fifth inning on Saturday night for Triple-A Oklahoma City in Reno, in the fourth and potentially final minor league rehab start for the Dodgers left-hander.
Saturday was a pretty classic Blake Snell experience against the Reno Aces, a Diamondbacks affiliate. The veteran southpaw walked four batters and threw nearly as many balls (36) as strikes (40), but Snell also did not allow a hit nor a run in his 4⅔ innings, with seven strikeouts. He was pulled with two outs and nobody
on in the fifth inning, having reached his expected limit of around 75 pitches.
And with strikeout #7, Blake Snell's night is complete!
— Oklahoma City Comets (@OKC_comets) July 27, 2025
4.2 IP | 0 H | 0 R | 4 BB | 7 K pic.twitter.com/E2GNlVcPd4
Snell had Sergio Alcántara, the second of his walks, picked off in the third inning but an error by first baseman Kody Hoese kept him on the bases. The baseball gods intervened later in the frame as Alcántara tried to steal third base, so Tim Tawa’s groundball was hit right at a covering Alex Freeland, who stepped on the bag and threw to first base for an inning-ending double play.
Missing bats kept Snell’s ledger clean, as he induced 18 swinging strikes. Eleven of those came on the curveball and slider alone, which he combined to throw only 22 times.
Left shoulder inflammation has kept Snell off a major league mound since April 2, having spent the last 16 weeks on the injured list.
Snell’s rehab has progressed about as smoothly as possible, going two, three, four, and 4⅔ innings in his four starts. The first of those starts was with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, then in the Arizona Complex League during the All-Star break followed by last week and this week in Triple-A.
The results for Snell have been dominant, striking out 24 of his 53 batters faced (45.3 percent) with five walks and a 1.32 ERA in his 13⅔ innings.
If Snell is activated for his next start, he’s in line to pitch again next weekend, which would be against the Tampa Bay Rays, for whom Snell pitched for five seasons and won a Cy Young Award for them in 2018.
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