Dodgers Week 8: Pitching staff in scramble mode

The Dodgers pitching staff was in disarray from the jump last week, beginning with a 12-inning win over the Twins on Monday. Overall, the Dodgers won three and lost four, but that doesn’t fully describe the week that was.

Dustin May injured his elbow Wednesday and is expected to miss at least 4-6 weeks. Julio Urías suffered a hamstring strain and will be out a few weeks. The Dodgers couldn’t get their starters to pitch deep into any game last week, with the starters totaling just 25⅔ innings, compared to 37⅓ for the bullpen.

That workload was too fast a pace for the bullpen to keep up, even with the standard shuffling of fresh arms in and out as needed.

Pitching woes overshadowed a strong week for the offense, scoring at least five runs in six of seven games. But, especially in dropping three of four games to the Cardinals in St. Louis, a lot of those runs were trying to come back from early holes.

Batter of the week

Freddie Freeman is heating up just before he returns to Atlanta for a second time. Last week he hit .429 and drove in eight runs. Freeman had six extra-base hits, including his 300th career home run.

Pitcher of the week

Tony Gonsolin pitched five scoreless innings on Friday in St. Louis, in which he was the first Dodgers starter to last longer than four inning since Gonsolin did so five days earlier. Gonsolin was the only Dodgers pitcher last week to record more than seven outs with an ERA under 4.50.

Week 8 results

3-4 record
40 runs scored (5.71 per game)
48 runs allowed (6.86 per game)
.417 pythagorean win percentage

Year to date

29-19 record
260 runs scored (5.42 per game)
212 runs allowed (4.42 per game)
.592 pythagorean win percentage (28-20)

Miscellany

Pulling an all-nighter: The Dodgers needed 12 innings to beat the Twins in a back-and-forth game on Monday, finished off by a bases-loaded walk by Trayce Thompson, who hasn’t had a hit since April 17. It was the longest game of the season for the Dodgers, one of only six MLB games to last at least 12 innings this season. At three hours, 48 minutes, Dodgers-Twins was the fourth-longest game by time so far in 2023.

An all-time cold streak: Thompson since his last hit, a second-inning single against Mets lefty David Peterson on April 17, has walked eight times. But he’s also struck out 22 times, and is 0 for his last 38, matching the longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher in Los Angeles Dodgers history. At the moment, he’s tied with second baseman Larry Burright, who had an 0-for-38 stretch from June 5-27, 1962. For Thompson, the first three outs of his streak came on April 17 after his single. Since then, he’s 0-for-35, though in those games Baseball Savant has his expected batting average at .083. Meaning, based on batted ball data, Thompson might have been 3-for-38, which is still bad but not quite as memorable.

An inning to forget: Julio Urías allowed all six of his runs on Thursday in the third inning against the Cardinals. Included were four home runs, tying a franchise record for most allowed in one inning. Ben Wade did the same for Brooklyn on May 28, 1954 against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. Wade was later the Dodgers scouting director from 1973-1990.

Short starts: From Monday to Thursday, none of Noah Syndergaard, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, nor Julio Urías lasted longer than four innings, just the fifth time the Dodgers have had four consecutive starts fail to pitch into the fifth inning since moving to Los Angeles, the last time coming in 1996. The franchise longest streak is five starts, by Brooklyn from April 30 to May 3, 1942, when Chet Khen (four innings), Freddie Fitzsimmons (three), Curt Davis (⅔), Whit Wyatt (⅔), and Kirby Higbe (3⅔) combined for 12 total innings.

Slam, part 1: James Outman provided the winning margin on Wednesday with his seventh-inning grand slam. That was Outman’s second grand slam of the season, along with a ninth-inning game winner at Wrigley Field on April 20. That put the rookie in select company.

Slam, part 2: While sitting on 299 career home runs, Freddie Freeman had three extra-base hits off the wall, two doubles and a triple. But he got one over the wall on Thursday night in St. Louis, with his grand slam joining the 300 club, the 155th MLB member, and the fifth to do so while playing for the Dodgers. Also, per the great Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Freeman is only the second player to hit a grand slam for his 300th home run, joining Rubén Sierra

Transactions

Wednesday: Dylan Covey was selected from Oklahoma City, and Justin Bruihl was optioned. Jimmy Nelson was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster for Covey.

Thursday: Dustin May landed on the IL with a right forearm strain. Bruihl returned to the major league bullpen, and Andre Jackson was recalled from Triple-A. Covey was designated for assignment after pitching four-plus innings.

Friday: Tyler Cyr was selected from Oklahoma City to join the bullpen, and Jackson was optioned after pitching 3⅓ innings.

Saturday: Covey was claimed off waivers by the Phillies.

Saturday: Julio Urías landed on the injured list with a left hamstring strain, which brought back Wander Suero to the bullpen.

Game results

• Monday: Dodgers 9, Twins 8 (12 innings)
• Tuesday: Twins 5, Dodgers 1
• Wednesday: Dodgers 7, Twins 3
• Thursday: Cardinals 16, Dodgers 8
• Friday: Dodgers 5, Cardinals 0
• Saturday: Cardinals 6, Dodgers 5
• Sunday: Cardinals 10, Dodgers 5

Previous reviews: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

The week ahead

The longest Dodgers road trip of the season continues with the Terrell Wade gauntlet, playing the team with the No. 3 record in MLB (Braves) and the team with the best record (Rays). Gavin Stone will take May’s slot in the rotation beginning Monday in Atlanta. Bobby Miller is expected to make his major league debut on Tuesday in place of Urías.

Tuesday against the Braves will be televised by TBS for those out of the local markets, and Sunday morning against the Rays is exclusively on Peacock.