The Los Angeles Dodgers have been cruising along as of late, winning five of their last six, all against NL West.
Along the way, the have opened a six game lead in the division. Taking three of four from the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers have effectively buried the team to the south, who are 13 games back. They also took both games in Arizona, and the Diamondbacks now find themselves 11 games out of first.
The Dodgers sit at 67-46, second best record in the National League behind the Atlanta Braves. And in even better news, reinforcements are coming.
It starts Thursday night as the Dodgers start their longest home stand of the season with a four game set against the Colorado Rockies. And taking the mound will be Clayton Kershaw for the first time since before the All -Star break.
Kershaw went on the IL originally dealing with left shoulder inflammation after asking to come out of a game June 27th in which he had already thrown six scoreless innings. At the time, manager Dave Roberts said that he would be back shortly after the All-Star break.
The IL stint obviously went on a little longer and Roberts kept pushing the timeline of Kershaw’s return further and further. Clayton did not go out on any rehab assignments, but has been increasing the length of his bullpens in the last few weeks.
Before the game, Doc said that he sees no limitations with Kershaw for his first outing, but also it “wouldn’t be crazy” to see Ryan Yarbrough in the game also.
In other injury news, Walker Buehler faced batters for the first time Wednesday, after recovering from his second Tommy John surgery.
“It was good,” Buehler told reporters afterwards. “Just one inning, so nothing too crazy. But good to get out there, and cool to do it here, obviously, and not in the heat at Camelback. It was fun.”
As to how he pitched, Buehler said “It was fine. It’s never going to be perfect your first time out there. Made some good pitches, made some bad pitches. It’s over with.”
The team plans to have Walker face batters two to three more times before he goes out on a rehab assignment. While the hard throwing right hander had set September 1 as a goal to return, he will likely miss his mark, but should be back for the end of the season and beyond.
Blake Treinen also has made progress towards a return this season. The reliever tried to rehab himself from a tear in the capsule of his throwing shoulder before ultimately undergoing surgery last November. He had been rehabbing in Arizona, and as a surprise to most he followed Buehler in throwing off the mound at Chase Field after Buehler had finished.
Afterwards, Roberts spoke with reporters about Treinen’s outing.
“Blake was 100th percentile in the sense of he’s been throwing ‘pens and it’s kind of been 86, 87 (mph). And he touched 94 today, so it was a lot more than we anticipated. I stood behind and watched, the cutter and slider all had a lot of movement to them. So hopefully he comes out of it well and he should be throwing in the next three, four or five days again.”
Roberts also remarked that at this point, he is encouraged that Treinen also will return at some point in September.