From St. Mary’s outfield to World Series mound
Rookie Gonsolin makes start for Los Angeles in Game 2 vs. Tampa Bay
Tony Gonsolin had a dream of hitting his way to the big leagues, but the dream never was realized.
The 26yearold had to settle for the alternative — the Dodgers’ pitcher started Wednesday’s Game 2 of the World Series.
“He always considered himself a hitter and outfielder first,” said his head coach at St. Mary’s College, Eric Valenzuela. “When he was on the mound, it was a hobby.”
The Dodgers saw it a different way. In the 2016 draft, they selected Gonsolin in the ninth round as a pitcher, and the righthander found himself dealing at Dodger Stadium three years later, debuting in June 2019.
On Wednesday night, Gonsolin pitched on two days’ rest, so he wasn’t expected to last long. He went 11⁄ innings and 29 pitches and gave up a
3 homer to Brandon Lowe, and the Dodgers fell to the Rays 64, evening the World Series at a game
apiece.
It was a quick rise from the Moraga campus for Gonsolin, who became a pitcher out of necessity for the Gaels. He was predominately a hitter his freshman year, and Valenzeula got the coaching gig a month before classes began in Gonsolin’s sophomore year.
Several players had transferred, and the new coach inherited just 19 players and went as far as inviting other students to a tryout so he could fill out his roster. He lacked pitching and asked his position players if they had mound experience in high school.
Gonsolin said he pitched at Vacaville High, so Valenzuela took a look at him.
“His bullpen was just electric,” said Valenzuela, now the head coach at Long Beach State. “He was really raw. He looked like a position player pitching, but he threw a curve, slider and changeup and had a good feel for all of them.”
Gonsolin became a valuable twoway player and helped turn around the program. The Gaels struggled his sophomore season but rebounded into a winning team his junior year ( he excelled in the closer’s role) and won their first WCC championship in school history his senior year.
That team had two future bigleague pitchers including junior Corbin Burnes ( now with the Milwaukee Brewers), and the Gaels recorded the first of four straight 30win seasons and earned their first NCAA postseason appearance.
That’s when pro scouts got serious about Gonsolin even though he still considered himself a hitter first — he played right field when he wasn’t pitching and batted third — and hit .307 with a .400 onbase percentage, .476 slugging percentage, seven homers and 26 RBIs in 57 games.
As a pitcher, he was 33 with a 3.86 ERA and six saves in 18 games, including five starts.
Gonsolin wasn’t drafted out of high school or after his junior year in college, but once he turned pro, he zoomed through the minor leagues. In 2019 for the Dodgers, he posted a 2.93 ERA in 11 games ( six starts) and maintained his rookie status this year, producing a 2.31 ERA to put himself in the Rookie of the Year conversation.
Gonsolin made two appearances against the Braves in the NLCS, and neither was pretty. He gave up seven runs on five hits and six walks in 61⁄ innings,
3 showing rare command issues after walking just seven men during the regular season.
Three days after throwing 41 pitches in Game 7 of the NLCS, Gonsolin was going to be limited Wednesday. He threw 21 pitches in the first inning, walked his first batter in the second, Manuel Margot, and retired Joey Wendle before exiting.
“I’m so fired up for him,” said Valenzuela, who prior to joining St. Mary’s was a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under Tony Gwynn at San Diego State. “I’ve been texting with him almost daily, and I’m so excited for everything that’s going on.
“Looking back, even on draft day, he thought he was going to be taken as a position player. He had a really good arm in the outfield and thought he was a little too raw to be a professional pitcher, but he got so much better in those three years.
“The Dodgers took him as a pitcher, and now look at him.”