LOS ANGELES, CA — Proving to be too much for the 67-75 Nationals, Blake Snell showed why he is a two-time Cy Young Award winner in Friday night’s series opener at Dodger Stadium.
On a mixture of sharp breaking curveballs and 97-98-MPH fastballs that painted the corners, paired with outstanding command and control to total out to 100 pitches, 65 for strikes—the 33-year-old left-hander would leave the game up 5-0 after allowing just five hits and two walks across six shutout innings with seven strikeouts.
The Nats finished the game with five doubles though would not score their three runs until the top of the ninth, when they took advantage of Dodgers right-handed reliever Seth Halvorsen, who gave up a double to Brady House, a single to Abimelec Ortiz, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and a single to José Tena, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic.
As for LA’s scoring, it was Teoscar Hernández, Cotui, Dominican Republic, who once again provided production at the plate, giving the Dodgers a three-run lead in the bottom of the third inning on a laser line drive double into the left-center gap, which drove in a head-first diving Mookie Betts into home plate—just like Betts had done on Hernandez’s walk-off single the night before.
“I think Mookie has taken much more confident swings and then obviously with what Teo has done the last five games has been really big given that Max (Muncy) has taken some walks but not really the kind of swings and at-bats he has all year,” said manager Dave Roberts. “So, getting some help down below at the bottom (of the lineup), but the top has been really good the last call it three or four days.”
Snell was not the only pitcher Friday who had hitters shaking their heads while walking back to the dugout, wondering what just happened when they struck out.
So was Washington’s 23-year-old Luis Perales, Guacara, Venezuela, firing blazing 100-MPH heaters, and LA’s flamethrower Edgardo Henriquez, Cumana, Venezuela, who threw ten pitches with six of them over 100-MPH.
Henriquez hit 100-MPH once on the radar gun, 103 three times, and 104-MPH twice—that’s some serious Latino heat, my friends.
In the middle game of a three game set in LA Saturday night, the Nationals will start Cade Cavalli, who is 12-5 with a 3.12 ERA, while the Dodgers counter with Tyler Glasnow, who has been looking excellent since he came back to the rotation, sporting a 4-0 record with a 2.79 ERA.
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