LOS ANGELES — The best way to solve a bullpen issue would be to barely need the relievers at all.
Left-hander Blake Snell showed the plan in action with a season-high 12 strikeouts over seven innings as the Dodgers salvaged the final game of a three-game series with a 5-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.
Lefties Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott rode Snell’s momentum with a scoreless inning each to finish off the shutout.
As the Dodgers work on a strategy for the bullpen moving forward, including the possibility of using Shohei Ohtani in relief during the playoffs, Snell is showing how he can be a part of the solution.
It has taken just 10 starts this season, and eight since returning from left shoulder inflammation, for Snell to plant himself at the top of the Dodgers’ postseason rotation plans alongside right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
In Thursday’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants, Yamamoto will get a chance to deliver his own status report after allowing just one run in each of his past three starts.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts showed his confidence in Snell during the seventh inning by leaving his left-hander in the game despite putting two runners aboard with two outs on consecutive walks as the team was clinging to a 3-0 lead.
Roberts stayed the course even as Alex Vesia already was jogging in from the bullpen in left field.
Snell paid back the trust with his 12th and final strikeout against Fullerton native Otto Kemp, clutching and shaking his left fist close to his chest as he walked off the mound.
In addition to his 12 strikeouts that tied a season high for the Dodgers, also done by Tyler Glasnow on July 23 against the Minnesota Twins, Snell threw a season-high 112 pitches. He gave up just two hits for the second consecutive start, doing it in six innings last week against the Colorado Rockies.
Roberts’ decision to stay with Snell appeared to come from his trepidation over using a besieged bullpen that is the biggest of the club’s concerns with October on the horizon.
On offense, Freddie Freeman delivered the first run with a second-inning home run and Ohtani added some insurance with a home run in the eighth, his 51st. They became the first left-handed hitters to go deep against the lefty Jesus Luzardo this season.
After Miguel Rojas and Andy Pages singled with one out in the second inning, Ben Rortvedt made it 2-0 with an RBI single. Kiké Hernandez tacked on the third Dodgers run with an RBI single in the fourth.
Ohtani’s home run in the eighth was followed by a sacrifice fly from Tommy Edman.
Hernandez was starting at third base for the third time in four games in place of Max Muncy, who was hit by a pitch in the back of the helmet Saturday at San Francisco.
More to come on this story.
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