MIAMI –– Tyler Glasnow isn’t hurt again.
That much, the Dodgers pitcher made abundantly clear Saturday, saying he still “feels good” more than a month removed from his long-awaited return from the injured list.
However, Glasnow didn’t feel completely right physically on Saturday, either, at least according to manager Dave Roberts.
Ahead of Glasnow’s start in Miami, the right-hander “didn’t feel great coming into the game as far as kind of overall body,” Roberts revealed afterward.
And over the course of a four-plus-inning, four-run clunker against the Marlins, the pitcher “was fighting himself all game” while trying to get into a rhythm with his mechanics, as Roberts described it.
“He’s a big-bodied guy, so there’s a lot of big moving parts,” Roberts added of the lanky 6-foot-4 veteran, who also appeared to be stretching out his back at various points in the outing. “So sometimes if they get out of whack a little bit, it’s hard to just sync everything up.”
Given Glasnow’s lengthy injury history –– which includes, most recently, his three-month absence with back spasms earlier this year –– such comments could come initially as a cause for concern.
However, Roberts clarified that there is no current alarm regarding Glasnow’s health, saying he “didn’t think” that Saturday’s setback “is something that’s longer term at all.”
Glasnow also echoed that sentiment in his postgame press availability, instead writing off Saturday as something that “just kind of happens throughout a season.”
“I’m just kind of hitting that right now,” Glasnow added, after noting that “every pitch was kind of off” in his 91-pitch performance. “When something like that happens, you kind of figure out what it is, catch it and get going. So I just have to figure it out again and hopefully next start will be good.”
Glasnow’s first two starts back from the injured list last month certainly were. In his return outing, he bounced back from a three-run first inning in Atlanta to pitch four more frames without any damage. He followed that up with a seven-inning, one-run gem in Detroit five days later, raising hopes the 33-year-old had immediately rediscovered his dominant, vintage form.
But then last week, Glasnow stumbled through a six-inning, four-run start against the Washington Nationals.
And now, he’ll have to go back to the drawing board again after what was his shortest start of the season (excluding an early May game in Houston in which he originally got hurt).
“I think sometimes you’re timed up and you feel good, then other times you have to make adjustments and figure out how to get guys out that day,” Glasnow said. “I’m kind of in that [latter] phase right now.”
Glasnow appeared to be laboring from the start on Saturday, having to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first after a two-out double, hit batter and walk.
Then, things got worse in the second. After a leadoff walk, Glasnow grooved a 94 mph fastball to Graham Pauley that was belted for a two-run homer. Later, he gave up three-striaght two-out singles to give up another run, squandering the team’s early 2-0 lead.
Glasnow did bounce back in the third and fourth, retiring six in a row (including five via strikeouts) after finding a temporary “band-aid” for his mechanics, he said.
But his night ended in the fifth following back-to-back walks to begin the inning.
“Felt pretty good,” Glasnow said, “then it started to feel a little weird again.”
Whether that was due to health-related reasons or not, it is nonetheless troublesome for the Dodgers.
As things stand, Glasnow is slated to be their No. 4 starter in the playoffs, and could also be needed in a swing role out of the bullpen, similar to how he was used last October.
Granted, in the weeks leading up to that postseason run, Glasnow made a late breakthrough with his mechanics, then went on to post a 1.69 ERA in six playoff outings.
After Saturday’s struggles, the Dodgers can only hope he can replicate that again.
“I think that this one was kind of, given his last handful of outings, more of an outlier,” Roberts said, striking a more optimistic note. “So yeah, I think that when we get back home, he’ll make his next start, and I do think that he’ll continue to get back on that run he was on.”
