The Los Angeles Dodgers’ season is going so well that even the worst of news is not enough to derail the team’s mission.
The Dodgers learned Tuesday that staff ace Walker Buehler will have to undergo Tommy John surgery, and while he already had been ruled out for the remainder of this season, the procedure might knock him out of the entire 2023 season as well.
Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, the club sent out National League ERA leader Tony Gonsolin to put a charge into a 10-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The win was the Dodgers’ fourth in their past five games.
The teams will meet again in the finale of the three-game series at Dodger Stadium, with Los Angeles sending left-hander Andrew Heaney to the mound.
The Brewers won Monday’s series opener 4-0.
With machine-like precision, the Dodgers continue to have success. They have been without Buehler since the early part of June. Clayton Kershaw is on the injured list for the second time with back issues. Infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor (foot) has missed time, and Max Muncy got off to a slow start because of an elbow injury from last season. The bullpen has been crushed with injuries.
“It just speaks to the depth of our ballclub, our organization, to lose your ace and to be able to back fill with Dustin May, who is coming off his own Tommy John surgery,” manager Dave Roberts said of May’s return to the rotation Saturday. “You expect there will be certain things that happen as far as injury, but to have certain pieces to (fill in) is certainly huge.”
Heaney (1-1, 1.77 ERA) has struggled with a shoulder injury that has limited him to eight starts this season. He has yet to pitch five innings in five starts since the end of his second IL stint, but he has been effective as the Dodgers ease him into the flow.
His most recent start Thursday at Milwaukee was not his best as he gave up five runs (three earned) in a 5-3 Dodgers defeat. It was his first career outing against the Brewers.
The Brewers will bring their own pitcher back from injury Wednesday as right-hander Adrian Houser (4-8, 4.72) is expected to make his first start since June 30. Houser has been on the injured list with a forearm flexor strain.
Houser was expected to make one more minor league rehab start, but he is needed at the major league level now with left-hander Aaron Ashby going on the IL on Monday with shoulder inflammation.
“You’ve got to learn from all of it,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said about dealing with injuries, such as the one to a second-year pitcher in Ashby. “We’ve gone through a couple of minor things and that’s not alarming in any way, really. It’s just part of what you go through here. We have to just continue to get stronger.”
What the Brewers need is the kind of outing left-hander Eric Lauer delivered against the Dodgers on Monday. Lauer went the first five innings of Milwaukee’s victory and got the win.
On each side of that game, the Dodgers defeated a pair of aces in the Miami Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara on Sunday and the Brewers’ Corbin Burnes on Tuesday, scoring 10 runs in each game. Neither Alcantara nor Burnes lasted four innings.
“Those are the kind of guys we’re going to be facing (in the playoffs) if you want to win a World Series,” said the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, who had four RBIs on Tuesday, as did Trayce Thompson. “It’s a good test for us, and we bounced back pretty good after (Monday).”
–Field Level Media
