The calendar will soon turn from August to September, and though the Dodgers have baseball’s best record following Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Tampa Bay before a sellout crowd of 52,464 in Chavez Ravine, their rotation is filled with enough questions to raise serious doubts about their championship worthiness.
Will ace Tyler Glasnow (elbow) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (shoulder) return from injuries in time to front a playoff pitching staff? Can Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler, both struggling in returns from major surgeries, be counted on down the stretch? Will the inconsistent Bobby Miller regain his 2023 rookie form?
In Gavin Stone, the Dodgers may have found at least one answer.
The rookie right-hander gave up one run and three hits in seven strong innings Sunday, striking out seven, walking two and making only one glaring mistake, grooving a first-pitch sinker that Jonny DeLuca lined over the left-center field wall for a score-tying solo home run to lead off the seventh.
Stone struggled during a five-week stretch from early July to early August, going 0-3 with a 6.91 ERA in six starts in which he yielded 45 hits, including eight homers, in 27 ⅓ innings.
But Stone appears to have regained his dominant first-half form, giving up only two earned runs and eight hits, two of them homers, in 19 innings of his last three starts in which he has struck out 23 and walked four to lower his ERA from 3.71 on Aug. 7 to 3.33.
Stone did not figure in the decision because the Dodgers broke a 1-1 tie in the eighth when Shohei Ohtani was hit in the left wrist by a 92-mph sinker from left-hander Richard Lovelady and Mookie Betts lined a first-pitch slider over the left-center field wall for a two-run homer and a 3-1 lead.
The Dodgers improved to 78-53 on the season and maintained their three-game National League West lead over Arizona.
Stone retired the first 10 batters of the game before giving up a one-out single to Brandon Lowe in the fourth, but he got both Junior Caminero and Josh Lowe to pop out to first to end the inning.
Stone walked two in the fifth, including DeLuca to open the inning, but he escaped damage with the help of Kiké Hernández, who was making only his sixth start of the season in center field.
Ben Rortvedt followed DeLuca’s walk with a drive the gap in left-center, but Hernández ran the ball down and made a lunging catch before crashing into the wall for the first out, most likely saving a run. José Caballero lined out to third base, Taylor Walls walked, and Jose Siri grounded out to first base to end the inning.
Kiké Hernández rounds second base after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning against the Rays on Sunday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Hernández then led off the bottom of the fifth by lining an 88-mph cut-fastball from Rays left-hander Jacob Lopez over the wall in left-center for his ninth home run of the season and a 1-0 Dodgers lead.
Caminero doubled off the left-field wall with two outs in the sixth, but Stone struck out Josh Lowe swinging with an 88-mph changeup to end the inning.
Stone tried to get ahead of DeLuca with a first-pitch, 93-mph sinker in the seventh, but DeLuca pounced on it, sending a 380-foot liner over the wall in left-center for his fourth homer of the season and a 1-1 tie.
Blake Treinen threw a scoreless eighth inning for the Dodgers, and left-hander Anthony Banda added a scoreless ninth for his second save, blowing a 98-mph fastball by Caballero for strike three to end the game.
Mookie Betts hits a two-run home run in the eighth inning against the Rays on Sunday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
