Heaney's return gives Dodgers a big boost

LOS ANGELES -- A lot of what Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman decides to do before Tuesday's 3 p.m. PT Trade Deadline will be determined by what the expectations are for some of the pitchers who are scheduled to come off the injured list.

The Dodgers are still without Blake Treinen, Dustin May, Tommy Kahnle and Walker Buehler, just to name a few. Los Angeles is optimistic it will get most -- if not all -- of its injured pitchers back by September. Getting those reinforcements would be the equivalent of a significant acquisition at the Deadline. Time will tell when, or if, these pitchers will return this season.

On Wednesday, however, the Dodgers got some more clarity on the injury front. Left-hander Andrew Heaney, who had been sidelined since June 19, rejoined the rotation, tossing four scoreless innings in a 7-1 win over the Nationals at Dodger Stadium.

“He’s been dominant whenever he’s been out there,” said Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux, who started in left for the series finale and recorded three hits. “Our pitching staff has already been really good. Getting [Heaney] back makes us even that much better. It was great seeing him do his thing.”

When healthy, Heaney has shown all the signs as to why the front office took a chance on him following a disappointing 2021 season with the Angels and Yankees. On Wednesday, Heaney battled some expected rust, but he was still able to keep the Nationals off the scoreboard.

Heaney’s incorporation of the “sweeper” has helped him improve, resulting in more swing-and-miss stuff. Over 19 1/3 innings this season, Heaney has allowed only one earned run.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “When he’s healthy and out there, there aren’t many hits. He typically doesn’t walk guys, and there’s a lot of swing and miss. There’s a lot of good ingredients when he’s out there. Our expectation is that in six days, he’ll be right back out there.”

In a limited sample size, Heaney has done a good job of erasing questions about his effectiveness. The problem, however, is that his left shoulder hasn’t cooperated during what seemed to be his breakout season.

After making two starts to open the season, Heaney was sidelined for two months with the shoulder issue. He then returned on June 19, but a few days later, Heaney said the shoulder pain was back. An MRI then revealed more inflammation, landing him on the IL for another month.

This time around, the Dodgers will be even more cautious with his workload. One more injury could force Heaney to miss most of what’s left in the regular season. The team limited Heaney to 71 pitches in his first start back. It will look to push him some more moving forward, but he won’t get up to a full workload anytime soon. How Heaney feels on Thursday will be the key in how the Dodgers navigate through the injury history.

“I knew I was going to be on a pitch limit to some extent, so I was a little annoyed with myself for having some long innings,” Heaney said. “But I want to feel good tomorrow and actually pitch more than two games in a row, you know what I mean? That’s for sure a big part of it.”

With Heaney giving them a boost on the mound, the offense wasted no time jumping on Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin. The Dodgers used five two-out hits to break out in a six-run inning, ending Corbin’s outing after only two outs.

It was the offensive explosion that was lacking in the first two games of the series, but on Wednesday, the Dodgers were able to avoid the sweep. They also welcomed the return of an important piece to the puzzle.

“The first two games obviously didn’t go like we wanted,” Lux said. “But to kind of get it rolling with the six-run first inning, that gives us a little momentum rolling in [to Colorado].”