Dodgers: Price returns to the bullpen as rotation stabilizes.
LOS ANGELES >> The most unusual season of David Price’s 13-year career finds the veteran pitcher right back where he started.
Clayton Kershaw will be activated from the injured list Monday and start that night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tony Gonsolin will start the following day, and the fiveman rotation will turn over to Julio Urías in the series finale.
It’s the first time in a month the Dodgers haven’t counted on a bullpen game in place of a starting pitcher to take at least one turn through the order.
That means Price is likely a reliever again for the remainder of the 2021 season injuries permitting.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Price’s role will be as the team defined it in spring training: “to take down leverage innings in the ’pen. He gets left and right out. He can go two innings, he can go three if we need it, an inning in a short burst if we need him the next day.” It’s easy to forget how that looked. In his first 23 games of the season, Price never pitched more than 2 2/3 innings at a time. He pitched on back-toback days twice, and appeared in three consecutive games once. The span was interrupted by a trip to the disabled list with a right hamstring strain, and it included three starting assignments in which Price served as the Dodgers’ “opener.”
Price had a 3.58 earned-run average by July 9, when he moved into the rotation to replace Kershaw. Curiously, the velocity on each of Price’s four favorite pitches ticked up as a starting pitcher, according to Statcast, the opposite of the typical pattern. Yet his strikeout rate fell. His ERA rose. The Dodgers went 2-6 in the eight games Price started in Kershaw’s absence.
By the time of their Aug. 28 game against the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers used an opener in Price’s place.
Price took the next seven days off after he reported soreness in his left elbow following that game. He had another five days’ rest entering Saturday’s game against the Padres. However, the elbow soreness is no longer an issue for Price, Roberts said.
Now, the 36-year-old left-hander returns to a role he had barely three months to grow into. From 2009-19, he started 310 games; only 10 major league pitchers made more starts during that span. Price opted out of the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
No difference for Turner
Trea Turner moved down in the lineup this week from first to third in the batting order, swapping spots with Mookie Betts.
It’s a new look for Turner, who has led off the majority of games in his eightyear career, but he believes the difference between the two batting order positions has diminished since he debuted in 2015.
“In the past I thought earlier in my career you get more heaters,” he said. “Now it’s a new ballgame. I get plenty of breaking balls to start a game, first pitch. I think as the game’s evolved, hitting leadoff or third is more similar than it used to be. Now, having Mookie and (Max) Muncy in front of me, there’s going to be people on base more often.
“It’s the same thing: put the ball in play, get pitches to hit. I think those RBI situations will take care of themselves.”
Roberts said both players agreed to the change when he suggested it prior to Thursday’s game in St. Louis. Betts (averaging 4.08 pitches per plate appearance through Friday) has been a more selective hitter this year than Turner (3.73 P/PA through Friday).
Update on Pollock
AJ Pollock, on the 10-day injured list with a strained right hamstring, made progress in his running program Friday. Roberts said the veteran outfielder is on track to return “much sooner than we anticipated” when he initially was placed on the IL. That date remains to be determined.