Dodgers Interview: Thrown Together at the Last Minute, Snell and Rortvedt Deliver
LOS ANGELES — When Blake Snell took the mound Wednesday night, the Dodgers’ left-hander expected to be throwing to his regular catcher. Instead, he looked up just before first pitch and saw Ben Rortvedt jogging out of the dugout — a backup catcher who had only just woken from a nap and been told minutes earlier that he was starting behind the plate.
“I think (it was) 6:55,” Rortvedt explained afterward. “I think about like 10 minutes before the game. I got a little warning that Will (Smith) wasn’t feeling great. So yeah, they found me when I woke up from a nap and then I just kind of showered, stretched a bit, was ready to go, and then got word um after he finished his bullpen and just met him on the bench, tried to get up to speed as quick as possible. I never really I haven’t really talked to him that much even this week. So um just trying to hang with him, honestly.”
For most pitchers, that kind of change could throw everything off. But Snell, who had not worked with Rortvedt in the bullpen or in any serious capacity before the game, took it in stride. “Yeah, it was easy,” Snell said. “I don’t think it was like for him it was probably a lot more difficult than me. He didn’t even catch me on the bullpen. The first couple pitches was when I was warming up and then um yeah, but it was it was easy. We started figuring each other out, learning as the game went on and got a lot better as the game went on.”
That calm carried into the outing. Snell wasn’t perfect — six three-ball counts through the first four innings left him wanting sharper execution — but he leaned on his stuff, and he leaned on Rortvedt. “The fastball’s getting better. It’s getting more true. Delivery is getting cleaner,” Snell said. “Too many 3-2 counts. Need to be more aggressive, attack. But yeah, I mean good outing. We got four runs quick. That helped. But I need to be more aggressive when we do that to get them back in the dugout and keep them hot.”
Rortvedt saw something else in Snell: sheer confidence. “Confidence. Just a confident man up there,” Rortvedt said. “Knows what he wants to do. Has faith in all his pitches. He’s got four good ones. So it’s a tough day at the plate if he’s honing in. Spun it. Chained up was really good. Put in the good plays. Fastball was just fastball. Fantastic job.”
The pairing might have been born of necessity, but the trust grew quickly. Rortvedt admitted he was just trying to hang on and let Snell dictate the game. “He controlled most of the game. He did a fantastic job. I was just trying to do my best out there,” he said. Snell, for his part, embraced the challenge of adapting on the fly: “We started figuring each other out, learning as the game went on.”
And as the innings rolled by, the two not only managed — they thrived. Snell struck out eight across six scoreless frames, and Rortvedt guided him through 104 pitches with barely a hiccup.
It was also a performance set against the backdrop of a remarkable week for the Dodgers’ rotation. Nearly every starter had flirted with a no-hitter in recent outings, and Snell admitted that kind of internal competition was motivating. “This week’s been fun,” he said. “I was definitely thinking about it. I was like, ‘Dang, the guys have been throwing no nos.’ But I was thinking about it. It’s fun. It’s internal competition and you’re excited for everyone and their success and you want to add to it and was happy I could do that.”
Rortvedt agreed, saying the rotation is setting the tone for the entire team. “Sky’s the limit with this group,” he said. “Starters are leading the charge here. Everyone’s got plus stuff. These guys are confident, they’re hungry, and it’s about time that we’re going to get going.”
For Rortvedt personally, Wednesday was more than just an emergency assignment. At the plate, he’s been finding his footing after a rocky start to the year. “I was tinkering a lot, so I really wasn’t that confident,” he admitted. “In Triple-A, I got a pretty good reset. I started to find myself again and kind of look myself in the mirror — what kind of player I want to be at the plate, what kind of player I want to be in general. I feel like I’m in a good spot now. So I’m just trying to do what I can to contribute, get on base, move the runner. There’s some big dogs behind me. Just trying to get on base and score some runs.”
Snell was quick to point out that the Dodgers’ sweep of Colorado was about more than just one night’s work behind the plate. “That was a big, big home series sweep and uh to get us, you know, going,” he said. “We’re going to go play San Fran and get us moving in the right direction. I think that was big. All of us have been looking forward to getting it going and this was a really good step for us.”
Thrown together at the last minute, Snell and Rortvedt didn’t just survive the challenge — they helped deliver another win, another shutout, and another reminder of how deep and resilient this Dodgers team can be.
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