LOS ANGELES — If there was ever a day the Dodgers wanted close to perfection from Tyler Glasnow, it was Sunday. And he gave them simply that.
The Dodgers had been within the midst of a stretch of 12 straight video games with no days off. Earlier within the day, the membership introduced that co-ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was heading to the injured listing with a strained proper rotator cuff, his brief begin the day prior leaving the Dodgers’ bullpen worn down. Offense as soon as once more proved tough to come back by in opposition to a troublesome Royals workers — and that was earlier than Mookie Betts took successful by pitch to his left hand, leading to a fracture.
Glasnow responded by throwing seven scoreless innings in L.A.’s 3-0 win over the Royals on Father’s Day at Dodger Stadium.
“Glas was nice,” mentioned supervisor Dave Roberts. “We would have liked some size right this moment. He was environment friendly together with his pitches, all of his pitches, and it is an aggressive-swinging workforce. He was getting strike one, he was getting swing and miss, he blended rather well. And to get him by means of seven was enormous and actually, actually useful.”
It had been a little bit of a tough run for Glasnow just lately, as he entered Sunday with the Dodgers having misplaced 5 of his previous six begins and a 4.00 ERA in that span. However you wouldn’t have identified that watching him work in opposition to Kansas Metropolis. Glasnow was each sharp and environment friendly, needing simply 85 pitches to get by means of his seven frames, with 62 going for strikes.
“The entire key to him is what number of strikes he threw,” mentioned Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro, who coached Glasnow with the Rays from 2018-22. “Typically he can scatter the ball and [get] just a little bit across the zone, however right this moment, he threw an excellent excessive share of strikes. And when he does that, he’s going to be actually robust.”
The curveball factored in prominently, with Glasnow throwing it for 31.8 % of his pitches, up from his season common of 16.7. 5 of his 9 strikeouts got here on the curve, as he elevated his MLB-leading Ok whole to 125.
“I have been in a position to land it for strikes the final couple of begins, and I believe I’ve had mechanical changes to attempt to simply preserve it in zone, versus simply all the time attempting to strike guys out with it,” mentioned Glasnow. “However yeah, simply attempting to love have an alternative choice I can throw for strikes.”
And it was a largely low-stress afternoon for Glasnow, who confronted the minimal in 5 out of his seven innings. The one time he actually bumped into hassle was within the fourth, when he labored round a one-out infield single and a stroll to strand a pair on base. It was Glasnow’s first scoreless outing since April 21, when he went eight innings in opposition to the Mets.
“He was actually completely incredible,” Shohei Ohtani, who hit two of the Dodgers’ three homers, mentioned by means of interpreter Wil Ireton. “Actually no threats all through the sport. So I believe all of us felt that we needed to actually decide him up this recreation.”
Ohtani’s first residence run was his second-longest of the season, touring 451 toes. Alongside together with his 464-foot homer on Might 5, he’s the one participant to hit two homers of 450 or extra toes at Dodger Stadium since Statcast began monitoring residence runs in 2015.
Glasnow, whose 9 seasons within the large leagues have been marked by quite a few absences on account of accidents, set private highs in innings (120) and strikeouts (162) in 2023. With 93 innings and 125 Ok’s, he appears nicely on tempo to blow previous each marks this season.
However the Dodgers try to be cognizant of what a possible career-heaviest workload may imply for Glasnow, searching for methods to mitigate these results the place potential. That’s a part of why he didn’t return out for the eighth inning, although he felt he may have.
“We’re attempting to offer him additional relaxation in between begins,” mentioned Roberts. “And I believe that in a selected begin, if I can curtail an inning right here or there, I am going to achieve this. However outdoors of that, that’s simply sort of learn and react on how he is feeling.”
“I believe any time you are pitching, any time you’re beginning, you need to take it so long as you possibly can,” mentioned Glasnow. “Everybody most likely desires to throw 130 pitches. However I believe it is extra about managing your self in opposition to your self. So no matter [Roberts] desires to do, I belief him and it is his say.”
