With Clayton Kershaw out, Dodgers count on bats, top prospects

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

The Dodgers are in the middle of an arduous 30-day stretch that calls for them to play 31 games. They were handling it just fine until Clayton Kershaw went on the injured list Friday due to inflammation in a pelvic joint.

That injury, which flared up on the flight home from Pittsburgh two days earlier, underscored the depth deficiencies the Dodgers must withstand to traverse this strange season, sapped of sufficient buildup by the lockout.

With Andrew Heaney still on the injured list and David Price working his way back from a case of COVID-19, the Dodgers were forced to call upon two of their top pitching prospects in a five-day span. Right-handers Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove held their own while debuting, but neither could finish the fourth inning, forcing the rest of the staff into overtime duty.

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"It takes," manager Dave Roberts said, "a lot more rotation gymnastics now that we have Clayton down for a couple weeks."

The Dodgers are still figuring out how far they can stretch. There’s help on the horizon, but the weakened staff has already cost the club some games. The below-.500 Philadelphia Phillies managed 29 runs in the first three games of the teams’ weekend series at Dodger Stadium, all L.A. losses. The Dodgers will see the Phillies again this weekend in Philadelphia, and again they’ll need to decide on a spot starter for at least one of the games.

But this is not yet a dire position. Even after the rough weekend, the 21-12 Dodgers remain on pace to win 103 games in 2022.

When he spoke to reporters about the injured list placement, Kershaw declined to specify what he was feeling or even where he was feeling it. Roberts compared the injury to previous back ailments Kershaw has suffered. The pitcher relied instead on a blanket statement: "I don’t feel great right now." He opined that the specifics weren’t important. And he expressed confidence that he wouldn’t be far from returning when his time on the IL expired.

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The Dodgers could use the help, but Kershaw has a history of significant back injuries, including in 2016, 2017 and 2020, all of which forced him to miss starts. He also has a history of returning too quickly from injury, eager to help a team meandering in his absence. The team will have to balance the long-term desire to keep him healthy for the fall with the short-term need to keep pace in the top-performing National League West.

While the Giants and Padres are close to them in the standings, the Dodgers’ run differential is by far the National League’s best this season — and the best in all of baseball. The numbers say they should pull away in time. But that depends, of course, on their pitching staff’s health.

Fortunately for L.A., when this 31-game stretch began, none of the Dodgers’ opponents for the first 27 games carried a winning record. Only the Mets had been succeeding this season; they will meet the Dodgers in Los Angeles at the start of next month to complete the grind.

Then again, some things have changed. The Arizona Diamondbacks have turned their season around and present a legitimate threat to continue their run this week at Dodger Stadium. The Phillies, as the Dodgers saw, are on the cusp of .500 and can punish unspectacular pitching.

If the Dodgers are to emerge from this stretch in first place, they will need to seize on the opportunities to play Pittsburgh and Washington, two teams already functionally out of postseason contention.

By the time the Mets come to town, there will be precisely two months left before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. The Dodgers could even act to acquire more pitching ahead of that. With Trevor Bauer’s salary off the books and several of their young pitchers flourishing in the minors, President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman will have the payroll flexibility and prospect capital to acquire assistance.

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Until he does and until their injured starters return, the Dodgers have to keep piecing together games and series. Pepiot and Grove will, likely, be thrust in again. Bobby Miller, the team's 2020 first-round pick, might debut, too. Rotation stalwarts Walker Buehler and Julio Urías will be asked to extend themselves, and Tony Gonsolin might, for the first time, be permitted to work deeper into games.

Fortunately for L.A., the Dodgers retain the offensive depth to compensate for a weakened staff. None of their All-Star hitters has sustained a weeks-long hot streak yet this season, but Mookie Betts might be beginning one.

One or two of those would go a long way.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic and, before that, the Angels and Dodgers for five seasons for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. His first book, "How to Beat a Broken Game," came out this spring. Follow him on Twitter at @pedromoura.