Gonsolin can't play stopper in sweep by Giants

LOS ANGELES -- Tony Gonsolin has been one of the Dodgers’ most effective starters over the last calendar year. He had a breakout season in 2022, becoming a first-time All-Star, and came into the '23 season as an important piece to the puzzle.

With the Dodgers carrying four healthy starters at the moment, two of whom are rookies, the club is going to rely on Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw heavily over the next few weeks.

On Sunday, the Dodgers turned to Gonsolin to give them some momentum. Instead, Gonsolin turned in the worst start of his career, allowing seven runs over 5 2/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss to the Giants at Dodger Stadium.

It was the first time the Dodgers were swept this season. It was also the first time the Dodgers were swept at home by the Giants since Aug. 20-22, 2012.

“It’s not the ideal situation right now,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. “Every day we came in with the right attitude, right mindset. And by the end of the day, it’s another loss. It’s one of these trying points to the season where you got to grind and keep coming every single day.”

Before the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he felt confident his team would avoid a sweep with Gonsolin on the mound. Through three innings, Gonsolin was proving his manager right, retiring the first nine batters he faced, five of them via the strikeout. Gonsolin was locating just about every pitch he threw.

Over his last three innings, however, Gonsolin wasn’t nearly as effective. The right-hander allowed two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth, and the game got away from Gonsolin in the sixth, where he allowed four more runs.

“My execution really just suffered after that third inning,” Gonsolin said. “Balls left up in the zone. They got some soft hits that kind of just fell down and some hard hits that helped. Overall the execution really just wasn’t there.”

Even with all the success he has enjoyed over the last few seasons, getting deeper into games -- and effectively -- has always been a problem for Gonsolin. Given the state of the Dodgers’ pitching staff, he will need to improve on that moving forward.

Gonsolin didn’t think he ran out of gas in the later innings. Instead, he thinks he was trying to “be too fine” with his secondary pitches. Whichever it was, it was another costly outing from a Dodgers starter.

“I don’t know if they were sitting on the split, but certainly the command of the split was all elevated in the zone, which didn’t create any swing and miss or soft contact,” Roberts said. “We just couldn’t close out innings and they did good situationally today, and we didn’t.”

Limiting damage has been something the Dodgers have thrived with over the years. Their ability to prevent runs is what usually drives their success. This season, however, that hasn’t been the case. In fact, only the A’s, Royals, Reds, Rockies and White Sox have allowed more runs this season than the 347 the Dodgers have allowed. Only one of those teams is over .500.

“When there is a run or two across, typically we can kind of keep them at bay and get our offense back on the field,” Roberts said. “We haven’t done that. We just got to be better at stuff like that.”

Outside of the pitching woes, the Dodgers haven’t been able to pinpoint why they are 12-18 over their last 30 games. It’s the worst stretch the organization has endured since '18.

Los Angeles hasn’t been doing the “small things” according to Roberts, and that was on display over the weekend. The Dodgers were on the wrong end of one of the wackiest plays ever on Friday. A throwing error by Bobby Miller allowed an inning to spiral on Saturday. On Sunday, David Peralta had a few mistakes in the outfield and the offense went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

“Every day we are trying to win a game and we’re not doing it right now,” Freeman said. “So there’s no extra motivation. We’re not just playing very good. So when you don’t play very good, this is what happens. Off-day tomorrow, we need to figure it out by Tuesday and you start getting going, because this stretch can’t keep going.”