Remember me
The trouble started as Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell threw in the Great American Ball Park bullpen before the game.
“I felt good all day, and then the second-to-last pitch of the bullpen, I threw a slider and then I felt it grab,” Snell said of the groin tightness that ended up taking him out of the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Reds early. “So I was like, ‘Alright, let’s see what we can do.’”
With Snell guiding the ball without driving hard off his back leg, his velocity was down a tick or two through a 19-pitch first inning. He gave up one hit, a single to Sal Stewart, which he quickly erased with a successful pick-off that caught Stewart in an inning-ending run-down.
“I was going to try to get through five [innings],” he said, “but I just knew I didn’t really have a good shot at doing that and remaining healthy.”
In a conversation with manager Dave Roberts, pitching coach Mark Prior and head athletic trainer Thomas Albert, they all agreed the best course of action would be to pull Snell from the game. Right-handed reliever Blake Treinen replaced him in the second inning.
With only 10 games left in the season, it’s unclear when Snell will be ready to pitch again.
“The next couple days are really going to decide,” Snell said. “But I’d love to throw on my next [scheduled start day]. Either there or a couple days after. But definitely, I want to try to get one more in the regular season.”
The Dodgers’ loss marked Snell’s eighth start of the season. His 2026 debut was delayed by shoulder fatigue. And then after one start, he landed back on the injured list to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow.
Since returning, he hasn’t given up more than one run in a start. Through Wednesday, Snell has a 1.86 ERA. And he’s a key member of the Dodgers’ projected postseason rotation.
“I don’t think anyone can sit here right now and say what’s going to happen in the next week to 10 days,” Roberts said, noting that the team would decide whether to send him to get imaging after they returned to Los Angeles. “It’s under the, ‘I’m glad it’s not worse and we caught it early’ [category].”
Snell has a history of left groin and adductor strains. He spent time on the IL in 2021, 2022 and 2024 for such injuries. He said this injury didn’t feel nearly as severe as any of those.
“[In the past] I felt like that and then I kept pitching on two of them and strained both of them,” he said. “One was a grade one, one was a grade two. So I’m definitely happy I stopped. … I’m aware if I kept pitching, I definitely would’ve strained it. So for me to stop, that’s a first. Maybe I’m growing up. I don’t know. But that was definitely the right move. And next couple days, we’ll see where we’re at and go from there. But I think I’ll be good to go.”
The last couple years, in an effort to avoid another groin strain, Snell has incorporated Copenhagen planks into his routine, strengthening the area.
“I thought I had this thing figured out,” Snell said. “Well, technically, I still do. I didn’t strain it, so that was a good thing. … I haven’t felt it at all until that pitch in the bullpen, and I was just kind of thrown off by it. So I’ve done what I’ve needed to do to be strong and healthy. Definitely a shock to me.”
After Snell left the game, the Dodgers used six relievers to get through seven innings. They combined to give up six runs and 12 hits, including a pair of home runs.
Sal Stewart is out at home plate as Will Smith reaches with the tag in the seventh inning Wednesday.
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)
Left-hander Kris Bubic, acquired at the trade deadline while on the IL (flexor strain, shoulder impingement), made his Dodgers debut in the eighth inning. In his first major-league appearance since mid-May, he allowed an infield single and recorded two strikeouts in a scoreless inning.
The Dodgers missed a chance to clinch the division with a win. And the Padres beat the Rockies on Wednesday to keep the division race mathematically alive.
So, the Dodgers will get another shot at champagne showers in Cincinnati Wednesday when left-hander Justin Wrobleski takes the mound. The Dodgers optioned right-hander Bobby Miller after his 2 ⅓ innings Wednesday and plan to recall righty Landon Knack, Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ pitching plans for the next couple weeks are in flux.
Though right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and left-hander Tarik Skubal have been rounding into the best versions of themselves down the stretch, Snell’s injury is the latest to deplete the ranks.
Right-hander Roki Sasaki (right middle finger blister) has been on the IL for almost three weeks. He threw a four-inning, 48-pitch live batting practice session Wednesday, with Dermabond covering the sensitive area on his finger.
The Dodgers had planned to discuss how to deploy him when he returns from the IL, but after the game, Roberts said to “make sure guys have ample rest,” his next outing will be a start.
Sasaki would be lined up to pitch against the Padres next week.
“It’s playable,” manager Dave Roberts said of Sasaki’s blister. “And given the Dermabond, the time that he’ll have in between this next outing, the hope is that it’s dang near close to being healed.”
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow hit a rough patch in his last two starts but said his back, which sidelined him for three and a half months, “feels good.” The Dodgers sent him back to Los Angeles after the series in Miami to cut down on the number of flights he’d have to sit on before his scheduled start Friday.
“Get him home, get him acclimated to Pacific Standard Time, not have to do two legs,” Roberts said. “So Tyler feels great. He’ll be ready to go on Friday.”
Roberts reiterated after the game that he’s “not concerned with Tyler,” who came out of a bullpen session Wednesday feeling “normal.”
If the Dodgers need another spot start in the next week and a half, they have right-hander Emmet Sheehan waiting in the wings. They optioned him to triple-A Oklahoma City on Monday, in favor of an extra reliever. But over his last two major-league starts, he’s limited opponents to one run and five hits in 11 ⅔ innings.