Gonsolin’s return gives Dodgers five true starters again.
When Dustin May left his May 1 start in Milwaukee with an elbow injury that would require Tommy John surgery, the Dodgers had a dilemma.
The starting pitching depth that looked so impressive — and even unwieldy — in spring training had dissolved, either to the injured list (David Price and Tony Gonsolin at the major-league level, top prospect Josiah Gray in the minors) or into a bullpen role (Jimmy Nelson). They could either hand their fifth starter spot over to Johnny Wholestaff — an amalgamation of relievers in bullpen games — or force someone into the spot, stretching them out to a starter’s workload in the process ... which would look a lot like bullpen games, at least in the beginning.
The route they chose was to go with bullpen games — four in the past five weeks, as it turned out — and rely on their four true starters to go deep often enough around those games to absorb some of the strain on the bullpen. It went “much better” than he expected, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“The guys in the ’pen, namely David Price and Jimmy Nelson, really stepped up,” Roberts said. “I think that those guys being able to take down some innings — and also we had a chance to learn about some other guys. Some guys that are here with us. Some guys that are not.
“I think that we weathered it, got through it as good as we could have hoped.”
The Dodgers split the four bullpen games (three started by Price, one by Nelson), allowing no more than three runs in any of the games while allowing just 24 hits and seven walks in the 36 innings and striking out 54.
Gonsolin will be activated from the IL and start today’s game in Pittsburgh with the expectation that he will fill that fifth starter’s spot going forward.
“Go out there and attack, throw strike one. Try to get some early-count outs. Try to be efficient and see what happens,” Gonsolin said of the lessons he has absorbed from his previous big-league time.
“Physically, I feel good. I’m ready to get out there. I’m ready to get my first outing of 2021 underway and try to attack guys and be confident and do the best I can do.”
That first outing of 2021 was delayed by a sore shoulder that cropped up late in spring training and left Gonsolin in Arizona for the first two months of the season, feeling “like I went through spring training again.”
Ankle updates
Max Muncy was back in the starting lineup after being on the bench for two games with a sprained right ankle. But Roberts indicated Muncy’s mobility is still somewhat limited and he will avoid playing him at second base during the series in Pittsburgh.
Albert Pujols is likely to start at first base against Pirates lefthander Tyler Anderson today.
Meanwhile, catcher Austin Barnes was still recovering from his own ankle sprain. Roberts said he expects Barnes to be able to start either today (a night game) or more likely Thursday (a day game).
Seager scan
Shortstop Corey Seager had his weekly scan of the broken bone in his right hand on Saturday in Atlanta and it continued to show encouraging signs of healing, according to Roberts.
Roberts said the 2020 NLCS and World Series MVP could start taking two-handed swings off a tee “in the next couple of days.” That would be the first step in a progression toward taking batting practice and going on a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment before rejoining the Dodgers.
“I think that when you start taking the two-handed swings — given the fact that he’s already done a lot of rotation stuff, the core stuff, the one-handed swings — it’s a pretty quick ramp up,” Roberts said. “I’m sure he’s going to be standing in on bullpens to kind of get the gauging of velocity and spinning of the baseball.
“I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but it is quicker than I would have expected. You’ve got a young body that certainly heals pretty quickly and you’ve got to an eager player so that kind of lends itself to that.”
Cleavinger rehab
Lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger began a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Monday night. Cleavinger pitched a hitless inning, striking out one and walking one.
Cleavinger has been on the injured list since May 19 with a forearm injury. In eight appearances for the Dodgers this season, Cleavinger is 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA.
Also
ESPN has added the Dodgers-Cubs game on June 27 to the “Sunday Night Baseball” lineup. The broadcast from Dodger Stadium will be an ESPN exclusive (no SportsNet LA) and is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.