Hill hasn’t been able to get over the hump
MILWAUKEE — As the Dodgers celebrated a 10-8 victory over the Brewers on Saturday, Rich Hill struggled to find a reason to feel included in the joy.
“It hasn’t been too good of a run so far for myself, personally,” Hill said. “Today we obviously showed a lot of perseverance. It was great to see. I’d like to do a little bit more of my part, obviously, and start contributing.”
Some of the adversity resulted from Hill’s performance. He logged only four innings and gave up three runs. In six outings this season, Hill has yet to throw a pitch in the sixth inning. He continues to fight with his delivery, which contributed to bouts of wildness on Saturday.
After walking a careerhigh seven batters on May 24, Hill spent the next few days tinkering with his release to improve his timing. He responded five days later with five innings of one-run baseball against the Cardinals. The alterations did not make the trip to Miller Park on Saturday, as Hill walked four batters, threw a wild pitch and gave up a homer to first baseman Jesus Aguilar.
“There’s times when he’s really good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And there’s other times when he seems like he’s fighting his delivery and his release point. There were some good throws with the fastball today, and there were some throws that weren’t really competitive with the fastball and the breaking ball.”
Hill indicated the answer lay in repetition. He intended to attempt to calibrate his delivery once again before his next appearance.
“It’s just mechanically finding that same, repetitive motion, that I can go to every single time,” Hill said. “Where you can basically close your eyes and throw the ball, and you know where the pitch is going to go. Unfortunately, that just isn’t something I’ve felt for the last little bit.”
Short hops
The Dodgers gave Logan Forsythe a day off to rest after he reported some soreness in the area of his right hip flexor. Forsythe has hit .129 in 10 games since returning from the disabled list in late May . ... Hyun-Jin Ryu will start the series opener on Monday against Washington, followed by Brandon McCarthy on Tuesday and Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday.