{"id":105139,"date":"2025-07-30T20:01:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=105139"},"modified":"2025-07-30T20:01:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:01:53","slug":"dodgers-blake-snell-returns-to-mound-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/30\/dodgers-blake-snell-returns-to-mound-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberts: Dodgers Ace Returns to the Mound on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are the Los Angeles Dodgers finally getting healthy? It appears so. Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/roberda07.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Roberts<\/a> announced that left-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/snellbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Snell<\/a> would make his return from the injured list for the Dodgers&#8217; road series against the Tampa Bay Rays, according to David Vassegh of SportsNet LA. Snell has been sidelined since April with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/07\/dodgers-shuffle-rotation-announce-replacement-blake-snell\/\" target=\"_self\">an elbow issue<\/a>. It will be the left-hander&#8217;s third start of the season as he takes on his former team.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105172\" style=\"width: 494px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-105172\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"494\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-1024x698.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-768x523.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-1536x1046.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25832254_168400885_lowres-2048x1395.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apr 2, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell (7) throws during the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Roberts: Blake Snell to Return for Dodgers vs. Rays<\/h2>\n<h3>Abbreviated Season<\/h3>\n<p>Snell was one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/26\/blake-snell-signs-with-team\/\" target=\"_self\">most coveted<\/a> free-agent signings in the offseason. Snell chose the Dodgers over multiple suitors because he wanted to win. Unfortunately, the two-time Cy Young Award winner began spring training pitching in pain. In his two starts, Snell has an ERA of 2.00. However, he has walked eight batters in nine innings pitched, which suggests that the pain was affecting his control. In his last tune-up at Triple-A Oklahoma City, Snell pitched a scoreless 4 2\/3 innings, priming him for a return to the majors.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dave Roberts confirms Blake Snell will start on Saturday in Tampa. Snell will be in Tampa tomorrow to throw a bullpen session to prepare. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Dodgers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/THEREAL_DV\/status\/1950670138522628588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Domino Effect<\/h3>\n<p>Snell&#8217;s return opens the door for the Dodgers to proceed with a six-man starting rotation. A move that the Dodgers have discussed and desired since spring training. However, injuries have limited that option. However, Snell&#8217;s presence pushes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maydu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dustin May<\/a> into the bullpen in a long-relief role. Dave Roberts wants the right-hander &#8220;stretched out.&#8221; Of course, that move only happens if May stays <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/28\/dodgers-dustin-may-tied-to-yankees-trade-deadline\/\" target=\"_self\">in a Dodger uniform<\/a> beyond the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n<h3>Other News of Note<\/h3>\n<p>Rookie right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sasakro01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roki Sasaki<\/a> will begin facing hitters at the Dodgers&#8217; Arizona facility and is expected back later this season. Sasaki has been out of the rotation since May with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/13\/dodgers-rookie-roki-sasaki-injured-list-sore-shoulder\/\" target=\"_self\">a shoulder impingement<\/a>. He has been working on modifying his delivery in order to limit further injury. This is good news for Los Angeles, as it was speculated that the right-hander may miss the rest of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t hold your breath, but it appears the Dodgers are getting healthy at just the right time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are the Los Angeles Dodgers finally getting healthy? It appears so. Manager Dave Roberts announced that left-hander Blake Snell would make his return from the injured list for the Dodgers&#8217; road series against the Tampa Bay Rays, according to David Vassegh of SportsNet LA. Snell has been sidelined since April with an elbow issue. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":102122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[1122,257,28707],"class_list":["post-105139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-blake-snell","tag-dave-roberts","tag-roki-sasaki"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105173,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105139\/revisions\/105173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}