LOS ANGELES — There are no secrets between Blake Snell and the San Diego Padres. They leaned on him as they toppled the Los Angeles Dodgers in their most significant postseason series in decades. They got him at his best. His three years there included his second Cy Young campaign before he left to tour with their California-based division mates.
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“They know me so well,” Snell said. “So they understand what the game’s going to be.”
With Snell donning a Dodgers uniform against the Padres for the first time, they knew to push the envelope.
Take Snell’s 2023 Cy Young campaign, when the left-hander allowed base runners close to free rein. Twenty-five stolen bases were taken while Snell was on the mound, and only one of them was thrown out successfully. It was a rare weakness worth exploiting — if you could do so successfully.
When Fernando Tatis Jr. led off Saturday with a single off Snell, it was time to run. A Dodgers team that has bumbled through much of the last six weeks was more than willing to let the Padres beat themselves for a change. The Dodgers took advantage of their rival’s ugly performance for a 6-0 win that will ensure Los Angeles will end this weekend with at least a share of first place in the NL West.
The Padres tried to get aggressive on Snell. They cost themselves a whole offensive inning in the process.
Don’t run on Will! pic.twitter.com/eqBtByalnW
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2025
“Essentially, they played 24 outs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“We had a plan, and they made some plays,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
Tatis got thrown out at second just as quickly as he’d reached base, as Will Smith uncorked a perfect throw to nab him. Luis Arraez and Manny Machado each followed with hits, but their ensuing double steal got snuffed out as Smith threw out Machado on the back end. Xander Bogaerts tried the same to lead off the second inning; Smith rifled a throw to second baseman Miguel Rojas to mark the Padres’ third out on the bases in a span of just five hitters.
“Looking back, maybe we shouldn’t have gone,” Bogaerts said. “I got my jump. I thought I was safe by a mile. But (Smith) has a good arm, man.”
LIKE WE SAID, DON’T RUN ON WILL. pic.twitter.com/cLBxl2Btcn
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2025
That, Snell said, allowed him the chance to settle in.
“That kind of set the tone,” Snell said.
Snell would complete six scoreless innings on the night, his longest start to date in a Dodgers uniform. At least one of those innings was completed on Smith’s right arm, as he became just the third catcher in a century to catch three runners attempting to steal within the first four outs of a game.
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“They know him,” Roberts said. “They’ve had him. So there must have been something they were keying on or saw as some type of competitive advantage. But fortunately, Will made some great throws and kept them at bay.”
By then, the Dodgers had already jumped out to a big enough lead to give Snell some breathing room. Dylan Cease walked the first three batters he faced and had already walked four batters in the first inning alone before Michael Conforto lashed a bases-loaded single to expand an early lead to three runs. Conforto’s season-long struggles had reached another new nadir this past week, when Roberts sat him down and illustrated the stakes. Conforto’s $17 million signing hasn’t produced the results anyone wanted. So Conforto should stop chasing them.
“I expect more out of myself,” said Conforto, whose .633 OPS is sixth-worst among hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. “We talked through a lot of things, but that’s the main thing. Just to fight for every inch in those situations.”
Saturday, he worked a 3-0 count against Cease and did not expand. He missed a chance to square up a 3-1 fastball over the middle but stayed in to drive a hanging curveball through the hole to bring home a pair.
The Dodgers were more than willing recipients an inning later when Freddie Freeman followed two more Cease walks with a lazy fly ball to center field that drifted toward the track and clanked off Jackson Merrill’s glove to bring home two more runs.
“It’s certainly good to be on the other side of things,” Roberts said. “Obviously the last month you could see from watching us play there are things that we just don’t do well to not help ourselves. The last couple nights, we’ve caught some breaks.”
San Diego did plenty to help Snell, who still has only allowed two Yandy Díaz home runs in his return off the injured list. Saturday was hardly Snell at his best; he lacked some of the swing-and-miss stuff that has been his calling card, and a Padres team that strikes out less than any team in the National League was eager to put the ball in play. He got through six more scoreless frames regardless, including the three outs he was given on the bases.
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Given how the last six weeks have gone for the Dodgers, as Clayton Kershaw quipped Friday night, perhaps they were due. The Padres had been dominant before arriving in Los Angeles, winning 23 of their last 35 games and becoming the first team to unseat the Dodgers from their top spot in the division this late into a season since 2021. That lasted a grand total of 48 hours, as the Dodgers will exit the first half of this stretch of six games in 10 days against the Padres with at least half of a hold on the NL West.
Saturday came with another bonus: The Dodgers secured the season series against San Diego, and with it, a potential tiebreaker should this division remain tight for the remainder of the season. Dating back to a year ago, and including their win in the National League Division Series, the Dodgers have taken each of the last five series they’ve played against San Diego.
“Every game from here on out is gonna matter,” Smith said. “So yeah, we want as big a lead as we can. We want to win the division. That’s our first goal.”
(Photo of Mookie Betts tagging out Fernando Tatis Jr.: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
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