LOS ANGELES — Only the body part seems to change.
Tyler Glasnow missed time with a lower back injury last year, then had his season end early with a sprained elbow. This season, he came out of one start in Philadelphia when rainy weather and sloppy mound conditions unsettled him. Two starts later, it was leg cramps that ended Glasnow’s day early.
Sunday, Glasnow came out to warm up for his second inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates. A familiar scene followed – Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a trainer came out to check on Glasnow, who quickly exited.
This time, the issue was discomfort in his pitching shoulder.
Potentially facing another hole in their starting rotation – already missing Blake Snell and awaiting the returns of Tony Gonsolin (this week), Clayton Kershaw (next month) and Shohei Ohtani (someday) – the Dodgers forged on, getting emergency service from Ben Casparius and ample offense to beat the Pirates, 9-2.
Before the game Sunday, Roberts said Glasnow had received fluids intravenously Saturday in hopes of preventing dehydration and a repeat of the cramps that caused him to leave his start in Texas last weekend. He wasn’t around long enough to cramp up.
Glasnow walked the first batter he faced Sunday and gave up back-to-back home runs to Andrew McCutchen and Emmanuel Valdez but got through the first inning with no apparent problems. During his warmups for the second inning, however, he could be seen shaking his right arm, prompting the visit from Roberts and a trainer and Glasnow’s removal from the game.
The Dodgers erased the Pirates’ 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back.
Freddie Freeman drove in the first run with a single, and another scored on a pair of errors by Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Andy Pages drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single, the first of his four hits in the game.
Kiké Hernandez walked to start the second inning, went to third on a double by Shohei Ohtani and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts. The Dodgers pulled away in the fifth inning with a solo home run from Teoscar Hernandez – the 200th home run of his career – and a two-run home run from Pages, who went a torrid 10 for 12 in the weekend series against the Pirates.
Casparius was the first responder, called in to replace Glasnow on short notice. He was outstanding, retiring 11 of the 13 batters he faced and striking out five in his 3⅔ innings.
Since taking a pounding in the Dodgers’ 16-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs two weeks ago, Casparius has allowed just one run on five hits in 11 innings over four appearances (including a start in last week’s bullpen game).
Casparius, Alex Vesia, Luis Garcia and Yoendrys Gomez (recently acquired off waivers from the New York Yankees) combined on eight scoreless innings in Glasnow’s wake.
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