Starting pitching depth could be a problem for Dodgers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Shohei Ohtani homered and the game turned into something resembling a piranha feeding at the Los Angeles Zoo, the Dodgers feasting on soft-tossing Miles Mikolas with the voracity expected of a $415-million team.

Their week-long nightmare was over. 

The Dodgers hadn’t forgotten how to score runs. They were noticeably relieved, and they deserved to be, but their debaucherous offensive display in their 13-6 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday obscured another potential problem.

The two-time defending World Series champions might have a starting-pitching problem.

Again.

Whether they actually have an issue depends on back-end-of-the-rotation pitchers such as Emmet Sheehan. 

Regarding Sheehan specifically, the pertinent question is which was more reflective of the pitcher he will be this season: The one who was rocked early in his start or the one who put up zeroes late?

Sheehan gave up three runs in the first inning and another one in the third. By the fourth inning, he was on his third time through the Nationals’ order. In a more important game, he might not have finished that frame.

Sheehan regrouped and gave the Dodgers 5 ⅔ innings, but the team still had to be uncertain of what it had in the 26-year-old right-hander. Sheehan lasted just 3 ⅓ innings in his previous start, which followed an uninspiring spring.

Already, the Dodgers are playing with a stick of dynamite in the combustible Roki Sasaki, who is scheduled to start on Sunday in the series finale against the Nationals. 

Sasaki pitched only four innings in his first start, and he failed to make it out of the first inning in his final game of a brutal exhibition season. The Dodgers are bracing themselves for the worst-case scenario. Justin Wrobleski is scheduled to move into the rotation on Monday for their series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, but manager Dave Roberts said they had him throw his bullpen a day earlier than usual in case he has to pitch in relief of Sasaki on Sunday.

The Dodgers have three legitimate Cy Young Award contenders on their active roster in Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, and that’s with Blake Snell sidelined with shoulder fatigue. But they have no idea what they will get out of Sheehan, Sasaki and Wrobleski on any particular day.

Carrying one starter incapable of consistently taking down innings can exhaust a bullpen that has to pick up the slack. Carrying two of them is tantamount to asking for late-game Chernobyl-level meltdowns. Carrying three? Hoo boy.

“Obviously, ideally, you’d like to carry none,” Roberts said. “Truth be told, I don’t want any of those (types of) guys. When you’re a starter, part of the deal is you’ve got to log innings. It’s part of the hallmark of starters, and Emmet and Roki have got to graduate to that point.”

Is it sustainable to have a rotation that includes two inconsistent starters?

“It’s not sustainable, no,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers found that out last season. With their rotation ravaged by injuries – Yamamoto was the only starter who pitched the entire season – Dodgers relievers combined to pitch major-league-leading 657 ⅔ innings. Their bullpen earned-run average of 4.27 was fifth-worst in the National League, contributing to an underwhelming regular-season win total of 93.

Snell isn’t expected to return until the end of next month, and the onus will be on Sheehan, Sasaki and Wrobleski to pitch deep enough into games to ensure the bullpen remains relatively fresh.

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Sheehan acknowledged he had to do better than he did on Thursday.

“Obviously, it’s still a work in progress,” he said. “The stuff is not really where it should be right now. There’s more in the tank.”

Sheehan’s average fastball velocity was 95.6 mph last season, and that number has dropped significantly this year. The average speed of his fastball was 93.8 mph against the Nationals.

Sheehan blamed the decline in velocity to mechanics and not health. That claim was supported by how his two fastest pitches – clocked at 95.7 and 95.4 mph respectively – were thrown in the sixth inning.

The ever-upbeat Roberts said he put more stock in the second half of Sheehan’s start than the first.

“I think today was a step in the right direction,” he said. “I think we talked about (how) he has to give us length, and he did that today, touching six (innings). 

“He looked like a major league starter and not a guy that’s cutting his teeth.”

The Dodgers will need more of that, especially with Sasaki pitching just days after him.