LOS ANGELES — By posting a 2.93 ERA and holding hitters to a .217 average over his first 40 innings out of the bullpen this season, Ben Casparius pitched his way into the Dodgers’ depleted starting rotation.
He is pitching his way back to the bullpen.
Casparius was ripped for six runs in the first three innings on Friday night, and things only got worse as the Dodgers absorbed an 18-1 pounding by the Houston Astros in the series opener of a matchup between division leaders.
But Casparius wasn’t the most unfortunate Dodgers pitcher in the game. Reliever Noah Davis gave up 10 runs in the sixth inning, the most runs scored in an inning against the Dodgers since the St. Louis Cardinals scored 11 in the third inning on April 23, 1999 – an inning that included two grand slam home runs by Fernando Tatis Sr. off of Chan Ho Park.
“That was one you want to flush as soon as possible,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
This one might clog the pipes.
The 17-run defeat is the Dodgers’ worst ever at Dodger Stadium and their worst overall since a 20-1 defeat at Wrigley Field on May 5, 2001.
Casparius’ struggles started from the first pitch of the game. Isaac Parades lined it into the seats down the left-field line for the first of the Astros’ five home runs in the game – including two by Jose Altuve, a grand slam by Victor Caratini and Christian Walker’s 20th at Dodger Stadium and 28th against the Dodgers (all but Friday’s coming when he was wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform).
Walker’s mastery of Dodger Stadium transferred with him from the Diamondbacks to the Astros. He is the first player (home or visitor) to hit home runs in six consecutive games at Dodger Stadium. In those six games, he is batting .577 (15 for 26) with eight home runs and 15 RBIs.
“I don’t think Ben was good tonight. It seemed like they were on everything he threw up there,” Roberts said.
Casparius faced 18 batters in his three innings. Nine of them had hits including four doubles and three home runs.
The Astros couldn’t have hit Casparius much harder if they knew what was coming – and they might have if suspicions about Casparius tipping his pitches have merit. Eight of the first 14 batters hit balls off Casparius with exit velocities of 100 mph or higher topped by Walker’s 417-foot homer at 107.5 mph.
“I think just execution in general,” Casparius said of what he was lacking. “I think teams are starting to game plan, obviously, a little bit more knowing I’m going to go more than one or two innings. Just mixing up where my fastball location is, I think has been kind of the telltale.”
Over five outings since moving into an elevated role – two starts and three following Shohei Ohtani as opener – Casparius has given up 18 runs in 19⅔ innings, including six home runs.
With Emmet Sheehan and Tyler Glasnow expected to return in the next week, Casparius won’t be asked to do that again any time soon.
“To get him into the starter role, it was out of need, and he did that. But getting him back in the ’pen and shortening him up, I think the stuff will play a little bit more too,” Roberts said.
“I think that there’s some familiarity to it, to the hitters, trying to go two times through a lineup. But to be quite honest, the stuff – there isn’t as much swing-and-miss. There’s not the quick outs that he was getting out of the ’pen. Obviously, when you’re a starter, there’s more preparation that goes into the other side, as far as preparing for a starting pitcher versus a reliever. So I think there’s some in that. But at the end of the day, he’s just got to execute better. There might have been 60 throws tonight, and probably only a handful executed where he wanted them to be. And that’s tough to do.”
Davis’ nightmare inning featured six hits (including Caratini’s grand slam), three walks, an error and a bases-loaded hit batter.
The Dodgers never returned fire, finishing the night with just six hits. Their lone run came on a home run by Will Smith in the second inning.