Gonsolin's return a big boost to postseason plans

LOS ANGELES -- In the postseason, the Dodgers are going to do some unconventional things with their bullpen. They’re going to play the matchups and will go into October without having had a set closer in quite some time.

For all that to work, however, the Dodgers expect their starting rotation to give them quality innings. They’ll continue to rely on Julio Urías, Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Anderson. A healthy Tony Gonsolin could give the Dodgers another piece to the puzzle.

Gonsolin took the first step toward proving he could be a key asset in October, making his first appearance since Aug. 23, allowing one run and striking out three over two innings in the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss against the Rockies on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

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“Overall, I thought he was good,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I didn’t expect him to be razor-sharp tonight. But I thought the stuff was good, velocity good, command was just a tick off. I think the main thing is we got out of it by having him be healthy.”

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The plan was for Gonsolin to get through three innings for the Dodgers, but the right-hander had some expected rust in his return. He breezed through the first inning, retiring Yonathan Daza, Ryan McMahon and Brendan Rodgers in order.

Gonsolin wasn’t able to have the same success in the second inning, getting hit much harder by the Rockies offense. Elias Díaz got the frame started with a single. After Randal Grichuk lined out, Sean Bouchard doubled, which was followed by an Alan Trejo RBI single. To Gonsolin’s credit, however, he struck out Ezequiel Tovar and Michael Toglia to end the threat.

“I was pretty nervous out there, I hadn’t felt that in a while,” Gonsolin said. “I tried to go out there and execute pitches and I did a little bit of that, but for the most part, I have some things to work on in this [next] bullpen [session].”

Gonsolin threw 40 pitches in his return, but most important, his velocity was nearly where it was before the injury. The right-hander recorded eight swings-and-misses, five on his signature splitter. After his outing, the All-Star went to the Dodgers’ bullpen and simulated another inning, throwing about 11-12 pitches.

“I feel like I threw a lot of balls that were non-competitive,” Gonsolin said. “So I’m just trying to make that adjustment and trying to get things closer to the plate.”

A key for Gonsolin will be how he feels physically on Tuesday. If he’s able to get through that and provide the Dodgers with three or four innings per start in October, that would be a big boost, particularly with Dustin May’s availability for the NL Division Series still in question.

“The plan is to, probably, on Sunday in our work, build him up to three or four innings, obviously in a controlled setting,” Roberts said of Gonsolin. “If that goes well, I don’t see why he wouldn’t be available, still, for the [Division Series].”

Behind Gonsolin, the Dodgers showed how they would deploy their bullpen in October by using eight relievers. Part of that was to give them a tuneup before the end of the regular season, another was to get them ready for similar situations in the postseason.

Yency Almonte, Tommy Kahnle, Craig Kimbrel, Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips each got through a scoreless inning. Caleb Ferguson and Chris Martin combined to throw a scoreless sixth. It wasn’t until the ninth that the bullpen cracked a bit as Brusdar Graterol allowed a two-out single to Toglia, ultimately deciding the game.

But despite the loss, getting Gonsolin back in the fold and deploying nearly the entire bullpen was a good sign for the Dodgers.

“I mean I think where we’re at, just having the arms of neutrality, we can pick spots for certain guys to prevent runs,” Roberts said. “I believe we can do a good job of that.”