Dodgers defense ruins strong return by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in loss to Cubs

The Dodgers have gotten almost nothing but bad news on the pitching injury front this year.

On Tuesday, however, the storm clouds hovering over the staff might have finally — or at least partially — begun to clear.

It wasn’t just that Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out eight batters in a dazzling four-inning, one-run return from the injured list. Or that Tyler Glasnow took another step in his recovery from elbow tendinitis, throwing a bullpen session ahead of a scheduled simulated game later this week.

Rather, for the first time in months, the team might actually be able to do more than dream about what a potential postseason rotation could look like.

“I feel much better about the rotation tonight than I did 24 hours ago,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Now only if they could have done something about their sloppy defense.

The Dodgers lost 6-3 to the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, with numerous defensive miscues (including three errors in a decisive five-run eighth inning) contributing to each of the Cubs’ tallies in their series-clinching win.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes tonight,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We’ve got to eliminate that.”

Indeed, for a team that Roberts hoped would be in “playoff mode” at this point — as they close in on another National League West division title, holding a 4 1/2-game lead at the end of play Tuesday — the maddening mental lapses in the field wasted what was otherwise an encouraging day on the mound.

With Yamamoto at last back, Glasnow looking increasingly likely to come back in time for the playoffs, and top trade deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty continuing to bounce back in a resurgent 2024 season, the Dodgers might wind up with three talented starters to rely on after all.

Less than three weeks out from the start of the postseason, the makings of an actual October rotation are finally coming into focus.

“It’s starting to turn,” Roberts said, “in terms of getting back the rotation that we had envisioned.”

This all, of course, remains no guarantee.

Yamamoto and Glasnow still have many boxes to check before being sure-fire postseason weapons. Flaherty, who dealt with back problems with the Detroit Tigers earlier this season, still needs to get across the finish line healthy. The Dodgers could still benefit from the emergence of a clear No. 4 starter, too, currently evaluating Walker Buehler, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Clayton Kershaw (if he returns from his current toe injury) for such a role.

But if things keep trending this way, the Dodgers’ potential playoff pitching plans might not be as patchwork as the team once feared.

Especially if Yamamoto can repeat what he did Tuesday night.

After missing almost three months with a strained rotator cuff in his right pitching shoulder, Yamamoto couldn’t have been more impressive in his long-awaited return.

He commanded his fastball to both sides of the plate, touching 98 mph on multiple occasions. He landed his curveball for strikes, and got six whiffs on 10 swings with his splitter. The only run he gave up came in the second, scoring after Freddie Freeman failed to snag a high-hopper near the first-base line.

“It was a much better return start than I expected,” Yamamoto said after inducing 11 swings-and-misses and flashing an uptick in velocity from earlier this season. “I’m really relieved I was able to return and pitch well.”

The fourth inning was the end of the line for Yamamoto, who hadn’t thrown more than two innings in either of his minor-league rehab starts in recent weeks.

Read more: Clayton Kershaw ‘trying everything,’ even working with Skechers, to ease toe injury

But the Dodgers are hoping it’s the start of a late-season surge from the 26-year-old, $325-million pitcher, who now has a 2.88 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 15starts in his debut campaign.

“He really showed out,” Roberts said. “I didn’t know if there was going to be rust or how he was going to command the baseball, but he passed with flying colors.”

Glasnow, whose October status had been uncertain since going on the injured list with his elbow injury last month, also appears to be turning a corner.

The veteran right-hander and de facto staff ace threw his second bullpen in the last week Tuesday, impressing Roberts and other club executives in an extended session that included his entire pitch mix.

“It was good,” Roberts said. “I didn’t talk to him about it afterwards, but my eyes liked what I saw.”

Glasnow will next throw a two or three inning simulated game Friday during the team’s trip to Atlanta. If that goes well, he could be on track to return before the end of the regular season, an encouraging development for the team’s $136.5-million offseason acquisition, who was 9-6 with a 3.49 ERA before getting hurt.

“To get him in a major league game [before the end of the regular season] is a priority,” Roberts said.

During his pregame address with reporters, Roberts still exercised cautious optimism while discussing the state of the Dodgers pitching staff (which is still without Kershaw, who once again played catch Tuesday, and Gavin Stone, who remains shut down with shoulder inflammation).

“There’s, in theory, a hope part of this, but there’s also a realistic part of it,” Roberts said when asked how built-up Yamamoto and Glasnow could be by the time the playoffs begin.

“I think that we’re all comfortable in the sense that, whatever the buildup is, is what it is, and we’ve got to go from there. So obviously I’d love to say that six [innings] and 90 [pitches] would be great. How realistic that is for both those guys, time will tell.”

By the end of the night, the manager had more pressing frustrations with his team’s porous fielding — the main culprit in what was their fourth loss in the last six games.

After taking a 3-1 into the eighth — Tommy Edman hit two early home runs, his first long balls of the season, and Max Muncy went deep in the fifth — the Dodgers capitulated during the Cubs’ five-run rally.

Reliever Alex Vesia issued a leadoff walk. Throwing errors from Austin Barnes (who fired wide of first base on a swinging bunt) and Tommy Edman (who threw a ball from center that neither shortstop Miguel Rojas nor Muncy at third base corralled) led to the two tying runs. Then the go-ahead run scored when second baseman Kiké Hernández lost the ball while trying to tag a baserunner on a potential double play.

“It was very uncharacteristic,” Roberts said. “Just a different team that I didn’t really recognize in that eighth inning.”

Barnes took accountability for his errant throw.

“It was horrible,” he said. “This one’s on me.”

The guilty party on Edman’s error wasn’t as clear in the postgame clubhouse.

Muncy, who let the ball get by him at third base before it dribbled into the Dodgers’ dugout, said he thought Rojas was going to cut the play off at shortstop.

“I mean, it was thrown right at him,” Muncy said. “Yeah, I thought he was going to catch it.”

Roberts, however, said Rojas was trying to deke the runner at first base to prevent him from going to second, putting a glove up as nothing more than a decoy believing Muncy was positioned to get the ball behind him.

“Miggy made the right play as far as trying to keep that runner at first base,” Roberts said. “I don’t know if Max was in the right position to be quite honest, and then the ball got by him. That’s a play that shouldn’t get past the third baseman.”

Those mistakes muted the good vibes that emanated the ballpark after Yamamoto’s impressive start. They served as a reminder of the fine-tuning left to take place in the season’s final stage.

Read more: ‘Self-fulfilling prophecy.’ The Dodgers’ role in MLB’s pitching injury epidemic

Still, from where the team was just a few days ago, when Flaherty seemed like their only safe bet to anchor a potential postseason rotation, brighter days might finally be on the horizon for the Dodgers’ injury-plagued pitching staff.

It didn’t result in a victory Tuesday. But it could position them for a deep October push that once seemed in doubt.

“Obviously it never feels good to lose a ballgame,” Roberts said. “But I think the big takeaway is that we have [Yamamoto] back.”

Gonsolin starts rehab

In other positive pitching injury news, right-hander Tony Gonsolin began a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City, pitching two scoreless innings in his first game action since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year.

Gonsolin remains unlikely to contribute to the major-league roster this year, Roberts said, barring a “crazy scenario.”

But by getting some rehab starts in before the end of this year, Gonsolin should be set up for a smoother return to the Dodgers rotation in 2025.

Teoscar’s return

The Dodgers lineup is expected to get a boost of its own Wednesday, with Teoscar Hernández scheduled to rejoin the batting order after missing the last four games with a foot contusion.

Hernández was available off the bench Tuesday, with Roberts joking pregame he “couldn’t convince the training staff” to green-light the slugger’s return to the lineup quite yet.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.