Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell (7) throws against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani runs to first base after hitting a single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers third baseman Miguel Rojas (72) throws out San Francisco Giants’ Victor Bericoto at first base during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
San Francisco Giants’ Turner Hill, left, slides home to score past Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Hunter Feduccia during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers’ Enrique Hernández celebrates after hitting a home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers’ Enrique Hernández, right, is congratulated by Tommy Edman (25) after hitting a home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers’ Enrique Hernández, left, is congratulated by Miguel Rojas after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, second from left, and Teoscar Hernández, second from right, celebrate with teammates after a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers pitcher Tanner Scott throws against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Dodgers third baseman Miguel Rojas, left, celebrates with first baseman Enrique Hernández after a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
SAN FRANCISCO — It was a four-inning wellness check.
Pitching for the first time since he left his start in Cincinnati after one inning with groin muscle discomfort, Blake Snell passed his test. He allowed one run on five hits in his four innings Saturday afternoon as the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 on Kiké Hernandez’s ninth-inning home run.
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The Dodgers will finish the season with a chance to reach 100 victories for the first time since 2023 – but the fourth time in the past six seasons and sixth time in the past nine full seasons.
Snell was healthy if not efficient. He threw 77 pitches to get through his four innings, allowing hits in each inning.
“Definitely needed to pitch today. Definitely showed that,” Snell said. “I was trying to go up and in, I was missing up and away. Even the last pitch of the game, I try to go up and in and miss right down the middle. I don’t know the last time I did that. It’s been a while. Even the changeup, the speed was up to 88. I gotta fix that as well. Get that to 86. Curveball, the release just has to get better.
“But overall, I learned a lot from it. Really encouraged by it, and just happy to get my legs underneath me and get going and completely move past the groin. I mean, it felt great today, and the velo was good. … I’ve got to figure my body out a little more, but I got a week to do so, and I’m really looking forward to that.”
He stranded runners at the corners in the first inning and at second base in the second. Jonah Cox led off the third with a double into the left-field corner, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly. Snell gave up a two-out single in the fourth, but Shay Whitcomb was thrown out by left fielder Teoscar Hernandez when he tried to stretch it into a double.
After the game in Cincinnati, Snell expressed confidence that he had avoided serious injury by recognizing the signs early and coming out of the game – something he didn’t do before landing on the injured list four previous times with groin injuries.
Saturday supported that decision. Snell’s fastball averaged 96.8 mph (up slightly from his season average) and he got 10 swings-and-misses (though only three strikeouts). Snell now lines up as the likely Game 3 starter in the National League Division Series, giving him over a week before his next start.
“I thought the fastball was had life. Just some near misses to kind of flip counts,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The changeup was okay. The curveball I thought was good. But I think for him overall, he just wasn’t as efficient as he wanted, as we wanted. But again, I thought it was fine for his last tune-up for the postseason.
“I was confident, we were confident (that Snell was healthy). But I think it’s still good to see it. And it’s good also that we got it out of the way, got that rust off, versus whatever game in the postseason, then he’s rusty, and you’ve got to kind of pick up the pieces in a playoff game. So I thought today it was again, really best-case scenario.”
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The Dodgers’ offense gave Snell a 3-1 lead.
Mookie Betts hit a solo home run in the third inning – his seventh home run in September as he surges over the final month of the season. Four singles and a walk produced two more runs in the fourth inning.
After a two-hit game including an RBI double Thursday, Shohei Ohtani has gone 1 for 9 with five strikeouts in the two games against the Giants. The lone hit was a ground ball under the glove of Giants first baseman Brett Harris in the fourth inning that was originally ruled an error and later changed.
“I thought today there was just more chase,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s 1 for 5. “And I don’t know if he’s trying to get hits, find his swing, getting a little over-anxious. Everything from Shohei to the training staff, the hitting guys, the work has been great. Looks exactly like it did, like it’s supposed to look.”
Roberts dismissed any suggestion that Ohtani is still not healthy after spending two weeks on the injured list.
“I don’t see any wincing. The bat speed is still (good),” Roberts said. “There’s one thing to just say you could just put him on ice and hope that the performance is there Game One of the postseason, or there’s another camp that says everything looks right and you have to get him (at-bats) and it’s still only – what is it 12, 13 at bats, 14 at bats (since he returned)? So, with a long layoff, that’s not easy either to come back and perform.”
The Dodgers’ bullpen couldn’t hold the 3-1 lead. The Giants came back to tie it with single runs against Brock Stewart in the seventh and Evan Phillips in the eighth before Hernandez put the Dodgers back in the lead with a leadoff home run in the ninth.
The homer was an uplifting moment in a difficult season for Hernandez, who started the season on the IL following elbow surgery, returned for two games, then missed two months with an oblique injury.
“Yeah, I mean it’s been tough, but I mean, it is what it is,” Hernandez said. “That’s the card I’ve drawn this year. It’s nobody’s fault. I was expected to miss the first couple months because of my rehab, and then I was not expecting to miss more time so quickly after coming back. It just happened to be that way. And when you have a team like this one, it’s hard getting in the lineup. So it’s just one of those things where that’s what you have, and you got to make the best of it. I just happened to not have made the best of my opportunities this year.”
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