SAN DIEGO — There was plenty of speculation this spring about what going back to a 162-game regular season after last year’s compressed 60-game schedule would do to pitching staffs.
Starter workloads, in particular, seemed to be ripe for cutback this season.
Going into Tuesday’s game, however, the Dodgers had leaned heavily on their starting pitchers. Despite the fact that they have had only four true starters for most of the past seven weeks since Dustin May’s injury, Dodgers starting pitchers have thrown more innings (404-2/3 innings) than any staff in the National League. Only one team, the Oakland A’s (418-1/3 innings), has asked more of its starters.
“Our starters have carried our staff a lot. … Four guys have carried us and our bullpen has done a great job, picking up the slack when we went through that rough stretch (without a fifth starter),” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said.
“We’re trying to balance it out. That’s why, in some cases, we could have kept to that four-man rotation. We had some off days but we kept the bullpen start in there. It’s still a concern, for sure. We’re trying to monitor them.”
Tony Gonsolin is “a wild card,” Prior said, that could allow the team to “balance” out the workload. Gonsolin, however, was limited to 46 pitches in his most recent start after reporting shoulder discomfort following his previous start.
“We need Tony to step up and be that guy we saw last year,” Prior said (before Gonsolin’s shortened start Sunday in Arizona).
Top prospect Josiah Gray has also had shoulder problems and made just one start this season before being shut down, compounding matters and not giving the Dodgers “the luxury” of using various pitchers to make spot starts and rest the front-line starters.
“We’re sitting on four starters and then Tony is not completely built up. And we don’t have much in reserve down in the minor leagues to bring up a starter,” Prior said. “It’s kind of the reality we’re in and we’re just trying our best to manage it. Obviously we worry about the near and the present right now and manage what we’ve got hopefully coming at the end of the season.
“Given the race that we’re in too, we don’t have the luxury to do what maybe we would have done last year with a big lead. … I think once we get closer to hitting the All-Star break and we can maybe try to expand it and maybe build some rest in there as well. I think once we get our full slate, get our full bullpen back, that might make things a little easier to slow them down.”
SHIFTING STRATEGY
The San Diego Padres are among the most aggressive teams went it comes to defensive shifts with third baseman Manny Machado often moving to shallow right field and taking hits away with his exceptional defensive skills.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has seen enough.
“I think I’ve always kind of been on the side of allowing for shifts. But the more I think about it the more I see it,” he said Tuesday. “I think we end up kind of talking out of both sides of our mouths as far as trying to promote offense but allowing for other things that kind of suppress it.
“I guess if I had my druthers I would do away with it (shifts).”
Roberts said he would be an advocate of requiring “two guys on each side (of second base) or … you have to be on the dirt if you’re going to allow three guys on a side.”
Through Monday, the Dodgers themselves had shifted on 55.7 percent of all plate appearances. Only the New York Mets had shifted on a higher percentage (56).
FULL STRENGTH
Infielder Max Muncy was activated from the injured list and started Tuesday night against the Padres. Outfielder Zach Reks was returned to Triple-A Oklahoma City after going 0 for 2 in his big-league debut Monday.
Roberts has said outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger will be activated from the IL and start Wednesday’s series finale in San Diego, getting the Dodgers very close to full strength. Shortstop Corey Seager is still approximately two weeks away from making the Dodgers’ lineup whole again.
“It should be pretty fun when it happens,” Muncy said. “I think I heard somebody say we’ve only had our whole lineup together for three games. I think we’ve been doing pretty well without our real lineup, if you want to say it that way.“I think only two guys on our 40-man roster haven’t participated (at the big-league level). That’s pretty crazy. It’s not even July.”
ALSO
Yoshi Tsutsugo went 2 for 18 (.111) in the first five games of his rehab assignment with Oklahoma City. The two hits were home runs in the same game. The calf injury that landed Tsutsugo on the IL was a convenient way to get Tsutsugo some playing time and Roberts acknowledged that he will likely stay with OKC for the full 20 days allowed. “It’s more of a longer-term play and I say longer as in a three-week play to make sure he’s back healthy with the calf and also just allows for him to take some at-bats … and kind of work on his stroke,” Roberts said.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Trevor Bauer, 7-5, 2.45 ERA) at Padres (RHP Joe Musgrove, 4-6, 2.28 ERA), Wednesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, ESPN, 570 AM
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