WASHINGTON, D.C.—Before the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 13-run onslaught of the Washington Nationals today, which seemingly awoke a silent and heavily criticized Dodgers offense, perhaps the biggest win for the team today was right-hander Emmet Sheehan getting into the 6th inning.
Opening the season, the Dodgers’ starting rotation was seen as a massive strength for the upcoming season, headlined by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and, of course, Shohei Ohtani.
Young Dodgers Starters Facing Early Season Scrutiny
However, for the backend, it would be up to second-year Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki and fellow right-hander Emmet Sheehan to balance out the workload for the entire pitching staff.
However, both have had mixed results since the start of spring training.
Sasaki’s struggles are well-documented as the former Dodgers top prospect allowed 15 earned runs in 9.2 innings, but with injuries to Blake Snell, Gavin Stone, and the team opting to have River Ryan start the year in Triple-A, he was given a spot in the starting rotation.
Likewise, right-hander Emmet Sheehan was also poised to take another step in his career after being a swingman in the Dodgers’ rotation in 2023 before missing the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery.
Last year, the Dodgers gave Sheehan a gradual buildup, even placing him in the bullpen come October to help solidify the pitching staff late in the game, which did not yield the best results.
But even with the team at the early parts of the season, entering their first full month of play just earlier this week, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emphasized that Sasaki and Sheehan not going deep into games is not sustainable.
Yeah, obviously, ideally, you’d like to carry none, but you know, guys are going to have bad games and go short. That’s going to happen with all starters, most starters.”
“Truth be told Dyaldn (Hernández of the Claifonian Post) I don’t want any of those guys. When you’re a starter, part of the deal is you’ve got to log innings, and that’s part of the hallmark of starters and emmet and Roki have got to graduate to that point.”
“It’s not sustainable. No.”
Sheehan Adjusts and Shows Promise in 5.2-Inning Outing
To Robert’s credit, Sheehan adjusted to not having his best stuff on the mound, tossing 5. 2 innings, allowing four runs on the day, three of which were due to a shaky first inning.
The Dodgers have seen this story play out before, just last season, seeing what an overworked bullpen looks like in the second half of the regular season and October.
Last year, that starting rotation was built to handle it and go above and beyond. We don’t know how they’ll respond, which is why Roberts is preaching more from his young starters.
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