- Share via
The Dodgers have long cast a wide net when constructing a starting rotation, and now they do so seemingly without financial constraints. Japan, South Korea, Latin America, via trades or free-agent signings, they’ll go anywhere and do anything to ensure that they can hand the ball to a seasoned, well-compensated pitcher every day.
Yet inexplicably, the best-laid plans continually fail, and they are forced to hand said ball to unproven rookies. Witness Tuesday with Jack Dreyer and Matt Sauer adding their names to a fleetingly familiar group that includes Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius.
Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, huge signings the last two offseasons, are on the injured list. The Dodgers already have used 22 pitchers with the calendar lipping into May. Granted, that includes comedic stints by position players Miguel Rojas and Kiké Hernández, but that only proves how empty the cupboard can get.
Minor-league callup Matt Sauer pitched five solid innings and gave the bullpen a breather as the Dodgers offense overwhelmed Miami in a rout.
How refreshing it was Wednesday to turn to a homegrown solution, albeit one who has endured his own litany of injuries. Tony Gonsolin, a 2016 Dodgers draft pick out of St. Mary’s College, pitched for the first time since August 2023 and shone in a 12-7 win over the Miami Marlins at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers completed a three-game series sweep and have won five in a row since getting blanked by the Pittsburgh Pirates behind phenom Paul Skenes.
Gonsolin, fully recovered from 2023 Tommy John surgery and a sprained ankle in March, mostly sailed through six innings, striking out nine while walking none, throwing 58 strikes in 77 pitches. The only batter he couldn’t fool was left-handed Kyle Stowers, who crushed a two-run homer in the fourth, a run-scoring double in the sixth and a single. Stowers added another homer off Yoendrys Gomez in the ninth inning.
To everyone else, Gonsolin was masterful. His four-seam fastball sat at 94 mph, his slider at 88, and the bottom dropped out of his devastating splitter a lot like it did in 2022 when Gonsolin went 16-1 with a 2.14 earned-run average, started the All-Star Game and achieved fame for his love of cats.
Dodger Stadium organist Dieter Ruehle has a long memory, playing a “meow” sound effect after each strikeout Wednesday. Gonsolin displayed his uncanny ability to finish with a W next to his name in the box score, the victory improving his lifetime record to a sparkling 35-11.
“It feels good to be back on the mound for sure,” he said. “Just to go out there and do my job and have fun. I thought I had a lot of fun today. I think that was the ultimate goal.”
He thoroughly enjoyed watching his teammates put crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
“Just knowing that they’re gonna go out there and put together quality at-bats and score runs,” he said. “And it’s gonna be really hard to keep this offense down.”
Manager Dave Roberts was understandably thrilled to get a healthy Gonsolin on the mound.
“He has a different brain,” Roberts said. “I think he’s just very confident in who he is now as a person, as a ballplayer, the moment isn’t gonna get too big for him. It wasn’t like this first outing in however long. He just took it in stride and really looked good today.
“There was no let-up. He pitched fantastic.”
Gonsolin and another homegrown starter the Dodgers grabbed in the 2016 draft, Dustin May, should be key rotation pieces during a brutal stretch of 19 games in 20 days that begins Friday with a 10-game trip to Atlanta, Miami and Arizona. Mayhas gone at least five innings in each of his five starts, getting roughed up in only one while posting a 3.95 ERA.
Tommy Edman drives in two runs on a walk-off single in the 10th inning as the Dodgers overcome giving up a five-run lead to beat Miami 7-6 in 10 innings.
Coming off an 18-hit barrage in a win over Miami on Tuesday, the Dodgers cooled only slightly, settling for 17 in the series finale. The slugging began early from an unexpected source when slumping Max Muncy hit his first home run on the last day of April for a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
“I’ve still got to clean some things up and be better in certain situations,” Muncy said. “It’s a work in progress. We keep rewatching my at-bats and rewatching my swings and the back body has been good, it’s just getting the ball to go forward.”
Forward, ho, the Dodgers adding three runs in the third and four in the sixth with Mookie Betts driving in four on a single and a triple. Freddie Freeman followed Betts’ triple in the sixth with his fifth home run. Muncy tripled in the seventh on a charitably scored fly ball to right field that Stowers misplayed, and scored on a single by Hernández.
The onslaught continued in the eighth with the Dodgers tacking on three more runs highlighted by a triple from Shohei Ohtani, doubles by Rojas and Teoscar Hernández and a single by Kiké Hernández. The Marlins scored four in the ninth against Gómez but it couldn’t take away from the optimism that accompanied the Dodgers on their flight to Atlanta.
“It was a real good, feel-good victory,” Roberts said.
Are you a true-blue fan?
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
