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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are about to find out if four innings can redefine a season.
That those four innings came in a sloppy defeat Tuesday shows just how much weight one short starting assignment and 59 pitches can carry.
What the Dodgers hope now is that the weight is not a burden.
A mere four days after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the starting roles will be filled but the names might be unconventional, that concept was deposited on the side of the road late Tuesday night.
“We’re going to have enough pitching,” Roberts said last week after right-hander Gavin Stone went to the injured list, where he joined Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“The names might be a little different. I don’t think anyone knows who is who’s not going to be a part of it.”
Yamamoto re-entered the picture Tuesday in an appearance that, by all accounts, was one start earlier that his rehab schedule suggested. He had been out for three months with right rotator cuff strain.
He barely passed 50 pitches in his rehab work, with the club usually preferring 75 pitches and the capability of going five innings upon a return.
But what did the Dodgers have to lose anyway? If Yamamoto stayed on his rehab assignment, they probably were going to be forced into a bullpen game Tuesday anyway, so getting Yamamoto through some early innings would actually help more than hurt.
Not only did Yamamoto get through four innings Tuesday, he did it in style, with his eight strikeouts in the outing coming on his first nine total outs of the game. He gave up just one run in those four innings.
The next order of business is how Yamamoto came out of the assignment so that he can be locked into his next one.
“He’s very aware of where we’re at and the value that he brings to our ballclub,” Roberts said after Tuesday’s game. “So I really like the focus from him. There’s a sense of urgency. And he realizes that he’s got three more starts now to be as finely tuned as he can possibly be and built up.”
Roberts indicated that if all goes as expected, Yamamoto will pitch again Monday at Atlanta. It will be another worthy test, this time on the road, against another playoff contending club.
“It’s been a while since the last outing, so that was a little different,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter. “I was trying to stay calm and to get out there and then perform.
"Today’s outing turned out so much better than I expected.”
His arm got the complete workout. He reached as high as 94 mph with his fastball and added in a curveball and a devastating split-finger pitch. He is expected to go as many as 75 pitches and five innings at Atlanta where he might even mix in more sinking fastballs and sliders.
“Speaking honestly, I didn’t know what to expect,” Roberts said. “... I didn’t know if there was going to be rust or how he’s going to command the baseball, but he passed with flying colors.
“It couldn’t have been a better outcome for us.”
Adding to the optimism of the day was that right-hander Tyler Glasnow also made progress from elbow tendonitis, throwing a bullpen session that afternoon. He also will make an appearance at Atlanta this weekend, pitching in a simulated game Friday.
Glasnow’s window to contribute is shrinking fast, with less than three weeks remaining in the regular season. But considering that the Dodgers weren’t sure what their postseason rotation would like just a few days ago, a handful of high-effort innings from Glasnow to open a playoff game still sound appealing.
Assuming the Dodgers wrap up a top-two seed in the National League playoffs, they would open the postseason in the National League Division Series on Oct. 5, six days after the regular season ends.
While the long downtime hasn’t seemed to suit the Dodgers in each of the past two playoffs, especially on offense, it gives them more time to get Glasnow in line for a postseason start. He might even be asked to pitch a simulated game against his teammates during the break, if he pitches later in the series, like in Game 3 on Oct. 8.
Still left to be seen is how Dodgers pitchers that are lined up behind No. 1 starter Jack Flaherty rebound after some upcoming high-stress starts, even those in the playoffs. And where do starters like Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller fit into the mix?
How will the bullpen handle the workload if a member of the rotation is overwhelmed early? What will late-inning relievers like Evan Philips, Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia and Daniel Hudson have left to give? Hudson has pitched just four times in three weeks.
Yamamoto’s brilliant four innings Tuesday did give the Dodgers a glimpse at a path forward, but there is plenty more in the periphery yet to be uncovered.
“I feel much better about the rotation tonight than I did 24 hours ago,” Roberts said Tuesday. “… It’s starting to turn as far as kind of getting back to the rotation that we had envisioned.”
A 162-game regular season requires more than 1,400 innings. The Dodgers seemed to have found four that can resonate into October.
