Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Dodger fans, get ready for an electric return to Chavez Ravine by the defending champs! Right off the jump we’ll finally get to CHEER when Snellzilla takes the mound. The prize pick-up from the free agent market will be making his Dodger debut in the home opener on Thursday.
The 2025 home opener is set for Thursday afternoon at 4:10 p.m., and it’s bringing serious star power to the mound. Blake Snell will make his Dodger Stadium debut in a regular-season game by starting the opener against the Detroit Tigers. It’s not just any matchup—it’s one for the history books.
Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner (2018, 2023), will be squaring off against Tarik Skubal, the reigning unanimous AL Cy Young winner who led the league in ERA, strikeouts, and wins last season. It’s the only Opening Day matchup this year featuring two former Cy Young winners, making this a can’t-miss showdown.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summed it up perfectly: “if you look at Major League baseball starting pitching in anyone’s math or opinion, those two are two of the top five pitchers in all the baseball and so to have… (those two) southpaws going against one another is going to be fun.”
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN as part of their Opening Day doubleheader, with the ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ crew—Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Pérez—on the call.
Snell officially joined the Dodgers on November 30, signing a five-year, $182 million contract. He reunites with Dodgers President of Baseball Ops Andrew Friedman, who originally drafted Snell out of high school back when both were with Tampa Bay. That connection mattered.
‘Starting with the the winter and our internal meetings and as we were getting together and talking about ways that we could put ourselves in the best position to win a World Series in 2025,” Friedman said, “all conversations kept coming back to to Blake… known him since he was 18 years old and to watch his journey watch the incredible success that he’s had has been really special.”
“It was pretty easy,” said Snell of the decision at the time. “You look at the team you look at what they’ve built what they’re doing um it’s just something you want to be a part of.”
Snell has been ramping up steadily. He made a few appearances during Spring Training, including an exhibition against the Hanshin Tigers at the Tokyo Dome where he looked sharp—striking out seven and retiring the first nine batters before running into some trouble in the fourth–giving up a three-run bomb that was all the scoring the Tigers needed to hand the Dodgers their lone loss in the Land of the Rising Sun.
After Snell’s start, the Dodgers rotation will feature Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki on Friday and Saturday, keeping the Japanese stars on a regular schedule following their Tokyo series starts. After an off day Sunday, Tyler Glasnow and Dustin May are lined up to take on the Braves to open the next series.
Roberts explained the decision: “It was more driven by Yamamoto and Roki, just trying to keep them on some sort of a schedule,” Roberts said. “Where to introduce Tyler into the 2025 season — pushing him back just made more sense, to keep those other two guys more in line.”
Glasnow and May will also pitch in the Freeway Series against the Angels, wrapping up the exhibition slate.
Bottom line: Opening Day at Dodger Stadium is shaping up to be one of the best pitching matchups of the season. A new era starts now, and Snell’s ready to lead the charge. Let’s go, Dodgers!
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