Andrew Friedman gave an extended reply Sunday morning when requested concerning the Dodgers’ latest — and, by the texture of it, acquainted — pitching woes to date this yr, the membership’s president of baseball operations bemoaning one other wave of accidents that has left the pitching employees shorthanded.
However the gist of his reply was within the two phrases he uttered at first of his response.
“Not fun,” he stated.
Within the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Angels later within the day, it grew to become even much less so.
As issues at present stand, Tony Gonsolin is successfully the No. 2 pitcher within the Dodgers’ rotation, thrust into such a outstanding function with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki injured. However in a four-run, four-inning begin, Gonsolin was derailed by his personal bodily problem, battling a bloody thumb in a three-run first inning that put the Dodgers behind the eight ball.
The Dodgers rallied, erasing what grew to a 4-0 deficit on Shohei Ohtani’s RBI single within the fifth and Will Smith’s tying three-run dwelling run within the seventh. However then a banged-up bullpen gave the Angels the lead proper again, with Travis d’Arnaud going deep within the eighth towards Anthony Banda — himself pressured right into a high-leverage function recently, regardless of a disappointing begin to the yr, due to accidents to Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Kirby Yates (who grew to become the most recent pitcher to hit the injured listing on Sunday with a hamstring pressure he suffered the night time earlier than).
Angels middle fielder Kyren Paris, proper, narrowly avoids colliding with left fielder Taylor Ward after making a catch on a fly ball within the seventh inning Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
Friedman argued the Dodgers’ damage issues this yr don’t examine to the dire straits they navigated en path to final yr’s World Collection title. Not like then, the workforce hasn’t suffered any season-ending losses. Within the huge image, they continue to be assured they’ll have sufficient depth to mount a title protection.
And but, the workforce hasn’t found the key to raised well being. Their rotation issues are giving the bullpen an unsustainably grueling workload. And determining learn how to higher shield the membership’s costly steady of arms is “by far the No. 1 thing that keeps me up at night,” Friedman stated.
“I mean, everything from my brain is about what we can do, like, how we can solve this,” Friedman added, the self-described “deep dive” the group took into pitching accidents this offseason having but to yield higher outcomes. “It’s like a game of Whack-a-Mole, and things keep popping up. … The definition of enough depth, I think is a fool’s errand. I don’t know what enough depth means. I think more is always better with pitching depth.”
However, with the workforce rating twenty first within the majors with a 4.18 workforce earned-run common, what they’ve at present definitely isn’t sufficient.
Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin can’t area a ball hit by the Angels’ Luis Rengifo within the second inning Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
“It is what it is, I guess,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “You just sort of have to deal with things as they come up.”
Gonsolin’s bloody thumb was the most recent sudden dilemma, arising when the pitcher picked at some useless pores and skin on his thumb after his pregame warm-up and “took some good skin with it,” he stated. “Just wouldn’t stop bleeding.”
After Gonsolin gave up a leadoff dwelling run to Zach Neto on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium, trainers got here to the mound to examine on his proper throwing hand. As they examined him, making use of a pores and skin adhesive to handle the issue, the tv broadcast zoomed in on streaks of blood overlaying the bottom of his pants.
Whereas Gonsolin stated he didn’t wish to use his bloody thumb as an excuse, his battle to command the baseball shortly grew to become apparent. With one out, he walked Yoán Moncada, trying visibly uncomfortable as he sprayed the ball extensive of the zone. In a 2-and-0 rely to his subsequent batter, Taylor Ward, Gonsolin threw a fastball over the center of the plate. Ward crushed it for a two-run homer.
“I just couldn’t execute pitches,” stated Gonsolin, whose 4.05 ERA nonetheless ranks second among the many Dodgers’ present five-man rotation. “I’m not going to blame my thumb or whatever. Just didn’t pitch good today.”
Gonsolin did quiet down from there, giving up only one extra run the remainder of the best way. However his pitch rely by no means received again beneath management, requiring 97 throws to get via 4 innings.
It was already the 14th time in 47 video games {that a} Dodgers starter didn’t work into the fifth, and left them with simply 13 mixed innings from their starters on this weekend’s collection sweep by the Angels.
“We were fortunate to get him through four, but still, you know, with what we went through this series with the starters, there’s a lot of innings our ‘pen had covered, and that’s unfortunate,” Roberts stated.
Certainly, all these brief begins have had a cascading impact on the workforce’s relievers. And pitchers like Banda have needed to compensate consequently.
Sunday’s outing marked Banda’s twenty first look this season, changing into the fifth Dodgers reliever to achieve that mark. Coming into the day, no different workforce had greater than three.
Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas shouts in frustration after hanging out towards the Angels within the seventh inning Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
After pitching a clear seventh, Banda returned for the eighth and was bitten once more by a standard drawback. In a 3-and-1 rely towards d’Arnaud, he threw a center-cut sinker that d’Arnaud crushed to left. It was Banda’s fifth dwelling run given up, tying the whole he allowed in 48 appearances over final season. It raised his ERA to 4.37, greater than a run above his mark final season.
“I think that there’s a lot of sinkers that are not sinking, they’re not commanded. He’s getting into some bad counts. There’s times where he’s not landing his slider,” Roberts stated of Banda’s struggles. “So I think it’s just a compilation of things.”
And this time, the Dodgers couldn’t reply, struggling their first three-game Freeway Collection sweep to the Angels since 2010, and first three-game sweep at dwelling to anyone since 2023.
“I think, to be honest, we just didn’t pitch well this series,” Roberts stated.
Till the pitching employees will get wholesome, it’s a shortcoming that can proceed to threaten the Dodgers.
