Graterol suffers ‘heartbreaking’ injury
by Cary Osborne
The more-than-five-months wait for Brusdar Graterol was over on Tuesday.
And then his night and possibly season were both over after eight pitches.
Graterol, one of the top relief pitchers in Major League Baseball in 2023, spent most of the season shut down due to right shoulder inflammation. His first Major League game of 2024 ended after he threw a high two-seam fastball, then grabbed the low part of his right hamstring.
The burly reliever appeared to wipe away tears before being helped off the field at Dodger Stadium by third baseman Kiké Hernández and head athletic trainer Thomas Albert. Graterol repeatedly shook his head before he reached the dugout, disappointed by a body that has failed him this year.
Manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 6–2 loss to the Phillies that Graterol’s injury is significant.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Brusdar, he’s been so good for us. He’s done a lot of good things. He’s pitched a lot of big ball games for us, postseason games. And he had a tough road back. Spent a lot of time in Arizona being on rehab, and then to come back and third hitter he faced to blow out, and it was a pretty good blowout. From what I understand it was a grade-three hamstring (strain), and so that’s a long road back.”
Roberts said Graterol will go on the injured list, and right-hander Michael Grove will come off of it. Grove has been on the IL since June 16 with a right intercostal strain.
Graterol’s 1.20 ERA in 2023 led all National League relievers. He finally made his first Minor League rehab assignment on July 12 and was activated from the IL on Monday.
Clayton Kershaw spent nearly as much time away from the Dodgers after left shoulder surgery. His third start back was a taste of redemption after failing to strike out a batter in a start for the first time in his career.
The longtime ace struck out the first batter he saw — dangerous designated hitter Kyle Schwarber — and he struck out four more in the game.
He was a few feet away from five shutout innings, but Schwarber’s low two-out liner hit grass in front of a charging Kevin Kiermaier in center field. A run scored, but that was it against Kershaw.
He allowed five hits and walked none to go with his five strikeouts.
The swing and miss was better — 10 on 44 swings compared to two on 41 swings on July 31 in San Diego. Kershaw allowed six hits and seven runs (three earned) over 3 2/3 innings in that start.
“Overall, I think it’s another good step in the right direction,” Kershaw said. “And now I just got to figure out how to maintain my pitch count. Obviously, my pitch count will keep getting higher, but you got to find a way to get through at least five hopefully six or seven at some point. (I’m) just kind of fine-tuning everything, but tonight there were some good parts of it for sure.”
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Kershaw said one big difference-maker was his improved fastball command from last week. He was able to spot the pitch throughout the night. He also in the fifth inning struck out Philadelphia second baseman Edmundo Sosa on what was captured by Statcast as a splitter.
When asked if he is throwing a splitter, he replied: “Changeup, whatever you want to call it,” with a smile.
Statcast had him with four splitters thrown this season and eight changeups.
He hadn’t thrown a splitter before 2023, according to Statcast, and the changeup usage has never been higher than 5% in any season.
“I do feel like I have the ability to throw it now,” Kershaw said. “I think potentially moving forward I might be able to use it a little bit.”
Freddie Reaches 500
Freddie Freeman, in his second game since returning from the family emergency list, collected his 500th career double in the first inning.
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