Despite rumors of their demise, the Los Angeles Dodgers are back, baby!
Ok, so no one really thought they were dead but it’s been a rough few weeks for the Boys in Blue. They lost four of their last five series, including the last three straight at home.
However, the Dodgers have seemed to righted the ship. They finished a three game sweep of the Washington Nationals on Thursday, who took two of three from the Dodgers just last week at home.
Starters James Paxton, Landon Knack, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto combined to only allow four runs over 16.2 innings of work, and the bullpen only allowed one run covering the rest of the innings.
The offense finally had another game where they got it all together, exploding for 20 hits and 11 runs in Tuesday’s game, garnering Knack his first career win. Yamamoto had the best start of his Dodgers career, throwing six shutout innings and showing much better command with his fastball.
Now the Dodgers head north of the border to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays. Gavin Stone, Tyler Glasnow, and most likely Johnny Wholestaff will take the mound over the three game series.
Hopefully this will be the last time (for awhile at least) that the Dodgers have to turn to a bullpen game.
Walker Buehler has seemingly made his last rehab start. He could return to the Dodgers for what would be his first big league start since his elbow injury in June 2022 leading to his second Tommy John surgery.
Over his five rehab starts, Buehler went 0-2 with a 4.86 ERA and 1.68 WHIP with both Triple-A Oklahoma City and Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. In his latest rehab assignment, he allowed five runs, three earned, and throwing 86 pitches over four innings of work. The team was in Albuquerque, whose high altitude could have skewed his results some.
Blake Treinen had his first rehab assignment earlier this week, and didn’t have the best outing. He allowed three runs on three hits, and only had one out, a strikeout, before he left the game after 20 pitches. This outing was also in Albuquerque. Roberts had previously said he will need three to four outings before he sees his first major league game this season.
Brusdar Graterol has been shut down. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Wednesday that he still has a sore arm, and it’s going to “be a long process” for the relief pitcher to be healthy again.
Jason Heyward also is a long way from coming back. He is still feeling residual soreness, and is currently not swinging a bat. Heyward is still more than a week from starting rehab.
Andy Pages has filled in nicely for Heyward in right field. Since his call-up from Triple-A on April 16, he is batting .258 with two homers. If he continues to play well he will force the Dodgers to make a hard decision about seeing him back to Oklahoma City.
The odd man out could be Chris Taylor, who maybe would have an “injury” when Heyward returns if things don’t improve. Taylor currently is struggling something fierce, batting only .047 and just looking lost at the plate. One would think he’s bound to break out of it sooner than later but right now it’s tough to watch.
The Dodgers will head off to San Diego at the conclusion of the Toronto series before heading home again.