Snell Wins Dodgers Debut, Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani Go Deep in 5-4 Home-Opening Victory over Tigers

The Associated Press

11:03 JST, March 28, 2025

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Snell won his Dodgers debut, Teoscar Hernández hit a three-run homer and Los Angeles defeated the Detroit Tigers 5-4 in its home opener Thursday.

Snell (1-0), a two-time Cy Young Award winner who signed with the Dodgers as a free agent in the offseason, allowed two runs and five hits in five innings. The left-hander struck out two and walked four.

Hernandez homered off Tarik Skubal (0-1) on his first pitch with two outs in the fifth, putting the Dodgers back in front 4-2. Ohtani reached on a fielder’s choice and Mookie Betts walked to set up Hernandez.

Ohtani homered in the seventh, extending the lead to 5-3.

The Dodgers improved to 3-0, having opened the season with a pair of victories over the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo this month.

The defending World Series champions and a sellout crowd of 53,595 saw the Commissioner’s Trophy arrive on the field in a blue convertible driven by rapper Ice Cube before the game.

Snell’s wild pitch led to Spencer Torkelson scoring the Tigers’ first run in the fourth.

Snell gave up back-to-back singles to Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene before walking Torkelson to load the bases in the fifth. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead on Manuel Margot’s sacrifice fly.

Torkelson homered to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 4-3 in the seventh. They again got within a run in the eighth on Kerry Carpenter’s sacrifice fly off Tanner Scott.