Landon Knack continues to prove he belongs on Dodgers in win over Giants
The Dodgers sent the message Monday.
By designating veteran pitcher James Paxton for assignment, the team sent a clear indication of its faith in its pitching staff’s youngest arms.
Much could change between now and next week’s trade deadline, but for the time being the Dodgers are rolling with a young rotation, one that includes four rookies in Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski, River Ryan and Landon Knack (in addition to veterans Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw, who will return from the injured list this week.
Knack was on the mound Tuesday in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win against the San Francisco Giants, continuing his strong rookie season by giving up one run in five innings in front of 52,627 at Dodger Stadium.
The victory was the Dodgers’ fifth in a row coming out of the All-Star break, and was keyed by RBI doubles from Gavin Lux in the first inning and Shohei Ohtani in the fourth. Ohtani also added an RBI single in the eighth, finishing the night second in the NL with 73 RBIs.
River Ryan shines in his major league debut on the mound and Teoscar Hernández drives in three runs in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants.
But Knack might have had the most effective performance — providing the kind of stress-free production the Dodgers will need from their young pitchers as they await reinforcements in the coming months (when Walker Buehler, Bobby Miller and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are all expected back).
“With young pitchers, the hard part is the unknown, the volatility and you can run a guy out there and he can’t throw strikes and can’t get through the second inning and then that kind of lingers for the next handful of days,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But the young guys that we’ve had this year, they’ve gone out and competed and thrown strikes and gave us valuable innings. It hasn’t blown up our bullpen.”
While Stone has been the star of this year’s rookie class, making a Rookie of the Year case with a 9-3 record and 3.19 ERA, Knack isn’t too far behind.
In eight starts, and nine total outings this season, the 26-year-old right-hander is 2-2 with a 3.07 ERA. He’d given up two or fewer runs in his first six starts, then on Tuesday bounced back from a couple of rougher recent outings (four runs in 4⅓ innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks and three runs in 4 ⅓ innings against the Philadelphia Phillies) by silencing the Giants’ slumping lineup, a second-inning home run by Tyler Fitzgerald proving to be his only blemish.
“I feel like I’ve just showed my stuff plays here,” said Knack, who mixed his low-90s mph fastball with a curveball, slider and changeup in a two-hit, two-walk, six-strikeout outing.
“I’ve done a good job mixing and keeping people in-between, showing that I have four pitches that I can throw for strikes and continue to use all four as a weapon. Just proving to myself that I can stay here, pitch here for a long time.”
Suddenly, Knack and his 44 career big league innings don’t seem so green either.
This week, the Dodgers also turned to recently called-up prospects Justin Wrobleski (who has a 4.40 ERA in three starts) and River Ryan (who gave up one unearned run in 5 ⅓ innings against the Giants on Monday) to help fill out a shorthanded rotation.
Wrobleski and Ryan appear likely to get at least one more turn through the rotation in the coming days, with the Dodgers currently utilizing a six-man rotation.
More than anything, though, it was the team’s decision to part ways with Paxton — the 11-year veteran whose 18 starts matched a team high, despite his 4.43 ERA — that sent the loudest message about its faith in its collection of young arms.
“Having River here, and Wrobleski,” Roberts said Monday, while also noting the upcoming returns of Glasnow and Kershaw, “we feel good about the starting staff going forward.”
Apart from Stone, it’s doubtful any of the other rookie pitchers will factor into the Dodgers’ postseason rotation.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts still wants to use closer Evan Phillips in “leverage” situations, but those scenarios could come earlier in games.
Could any fit in the club’s bullpen as October approaches?
“I think anything is on the table,” Roberts said. “I think each one of those guys would be and should be open to any role that we have for them going forward.”
For now, the rookie quartet is serving a more important purpose: helping the Dodgers navigate the starting pitching problems of the present, while offering a glimpse of the arms they’ll have to rely on in the future.
“The guys you come up with this entire way, to be able to see them come up here and have some success too and be able to contribute here, it’s fun,” Knack said. “It’s cool to see the young guys step up and do their thing here. It’s been a great experience.”
Buehler throws in bullpen session
Walker Buehler threw his first bullpen session Tuesday since rejoining the team this week. Buehler, who started the season poorly before going on the injured list because of a hip issue last month, had been working at a private facility in Florida to try to refine his mechanics.
Roberts said there was more “life” to Buehler’s fastball Tuesday, and that his “delivery was cleaned up, more efficient, consistent.” Buehler’s next step hasn’t been determined, but Roberts said it’s possible Buehler could go out on a rehabilitation assignment soon.
Gavin Lux stands to lose a lot when Mookie Betts returns, but his weekend performance against Boston could be part of a broader resurgence in his game.
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