The Dodgers have repeatedly proved they cast a wide net when constructing a starting rotation, seemingly with no financial constraints. Japan, South Korea, Latin America, via trades or free agent signings, they’ll go anywhere and do anything to ensure that each game they can hand the ball to a seasoned, well-compensated pitcher.
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 free-agent 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.
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, their fifth victory in a row.
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 would add his second homer of the game in the ninth inning off Yoendrys Gomez.)
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 his devastating splitter a lot like it did in 2022 when Gonsolin went 16-1 with a 2.14 ERA, 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.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was understandably thrilled to get a healthy Gonsolin on the mound.
“I’ve had a good chance, obviously, to see Tony’s growth,” Roberts said. “He’s just a lot more mature. I think the confidence, the ability to make pitches, command the fastball, understand expectations on what’s good and what’s not major league level good. So I’m really excited to get him back in the rotation. Just a guy that’s been there, done that, and I think that he’s going to be very dependable for us going forward.”
Gonsolin, who turns 31 on May 14, 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 road trip to Atlanta, Miami and Arizona. May, 27, has gone at least five innings in each of his five starts, getting roughed up in only one while posting a 3.95 ERA.
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. Yet they found solace early when slumping Max Muncy hit his first home run of the season on the last day of April to give them a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Mookie Betts took it from there, the Dodgers adding three runs in the third and four in the sixth with 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.
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