PHOENIX — As Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow went to the Injured List (yet to return) and bullpen games made an early-season cameo, the depth the Dodgers seemed to have assembled in starting pitching was not in evidence.
It might be starting to appear. Pitching like the All-Star he was in 2022 before Tommy John surgery in 2023 sidelined him for all of 2024, Tony Gonsolin held the Arizona Diamondbacks to three hits in five scoreless innings as the Dodgers won 8-1 Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, Clayton Kershaw finished off his rehab assignment. He will join the Dodgers’ starting rotation next weekend.
“It would be great. And it’s in there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the boost a 2022-level return from Gonsolin would provide the Dodgers. “I think that what he’s doing right now is signs of 2022, and also, you have the experience of a guy that is seasoned, really knows what he’s capable of. It would be really helpful.”
Sunday’s win concluded the longest road trip of the season for the Dodgers, who went 6-4 on the three-city tour, taking two of three in Atlanta and Miami then splitting a four-game series in Arizona.
Gonsolin’s road back was even longer. He acknowledged that he had questions about what he would be capable of after “pitching with half an arm for awhile there” in 2023 and waiting for his stuff to rebound post-surgery. A back injury at the end of spring delayed his return but bought him some additional time to rebound.
“I feel like it was really bad for a really long time,” he said. “Since I got back, maybe started doing my rehab after my back stuff this year, I thought the shapes and the velos and everything around my stuff has really come around.
“I mean those thoughts (doubts) have gone through my head, for sure. But as these last three starts have shown, I can do it. I can create miss when I need to. Just missing that going deeper in the game, so hopefully we can get one of those really soon.”
Gonsolin stranded two runners in the first inning and again in the third, helping push his pitch count to 84 in the five innings he did give the Dodgers. Mindful that it was just his third start back – and that he was the first Dodgers’ pitcher to start on four days’ rest this season – Roberts didn’t push Gonsolin any farther.
“Really impressed,” Roberts said. “I think the first-pitch strike is huge. He’s on the attack. He’s striking the split, shortening it. He can use a slider, curveball. He’s got a legit four-pitch mix, and today, it was actually encouraging to see him touch 95 (mph) too.
“Big lift for us.”
The Dodgers were leading 3-0 by the time Gonsolin’s day was done, on their way to an easy win. Held hitless Saturday, Freddie Freeman’s hitting streak ended at 14 games. He started a new one with four hits Sunday. Michael Conforto emerged from the darkness of his extended slump with his first extra-base hit since April 5 and first multi-hit game since April 2, going 2 for 3 with a double.
“He’s finding some outfield grass, and I just commend him. It’s hard to struggle the way he struggled and still come out each day with some sense of positivity,” Roberts said of Conforto.
Freeman has been finding all kinds of grass – and the occasional bleacher seat. He is 29 for 61 (.475) over the past 16 games with five doubles, a triple, five home runs and 22 RBIs. His average for the season rose to .376 with Sunday’s four-fer.
“He carried us this road trip,” Roberts said.
“I looked up the other day and saw he was hitting .360, I had no idea. … He’s just been relentless. He’s just taking good at-bats. And I looked up the other day and saw he was hitting .360, I had no idea. But kind of, when you look into it, he’s just really – like I said, he’s just been relentless.”
Freeman drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a double in the first inning, then drove in another with a sacrifice fly after Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts singled to start the fifth. With the infield in and Betts on third, Will Smith pushed a single through the middle for another run.
By the time the Diamondbacks broke through for a run against Ben Casparius in the seventh, the Dodgers had added single runs in the sixth and seventh. Ohtani drove in the sixth-inning run with an RBI single, and Freeman hit a solo home run in the seventh for his third hit and third RBI of the game.
The Dodgers put the game away in the ninth with three more runs. Betts hit a solo home run. Freeman singled and moved to second on a balk then scored on a double by Smith.
Smith is now 16 for 32 (.484) with runners in scoring position this season. He scored on a single by Andy Pages.
“It was a long road trip,” Freeman summarized. “A lot of late flights. Late ‘get-ins.’ And to have a winning road trip, that was good.”