LOS ANGELES -- Before Tuesday’s game against the Pirates, manager Dave Roberts made sure to get his point across. When asked about the inability of most of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers to get deep into games, Roberts said that needed to change moving forward. 

In the club's 9-7 loss at Dodger Stadium, however, that did not change, as rookie Emmet Sheehan allowed five runs on four hits and went 3 2/3 innings, the shortest outing of his young big league career. 

“It’s tough,” said Roberts. “Emmet wasn’t sharp tonight with the walks and getting behind and not being able to go deep into a game. … We did the best we could. We got to a position to win the game. It just didn’t happen.”

Compounding Los Angeles’ current predicament was the pregame news that right-hander Dustin May will undergo right elbow surgery to repair his flexor tendon on July 18, effectively ending his 2023 season.

This will be May’s second major elbow surgery of his career. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, forcing him to miss most of the ‘22 season before returning last August. The Dodgers are hoping to have him back at some point in ‘24, but even that is unclear until he undergoes surgery. 

“It’s tough. I feel for Dustin,” Roberts said. “The work he put in after Tommy John, to get back and kind of go through this again is disappointing for all of us.” 

Through 85 games, short outings have been a recurring theme this season for Dodgers starting pitchers not named Clayton Kershaw. The club came into play Tuesday with the eighth-fewest innings out of their starting rotation among all Major League pitching staffs this season, at 425 2/3 innings. That’s a far cry from a year ago, when the Dodgers had the 11th most innings out of their starting staff (825 1/3 innings).

The issue has been magnified in this past week. With Sheehan's abbreviated outing on Tuesday, that now marks four consecutive games in which a Dodgers starter has failed to go more than four innings. During that span, the starters have given up 15 runs on 21 hits over 14 1/3 innings of work. 

During that stretch, the Dodgers went 1-3 against the Royals and Pirates, two teams under .500.

The extended absence of May will be another obstacle for this beleaguered staff. 

When healthy, May has been one of the Dodgers’ best pitchers. This season was expected to be his breakout campaign, and it got off to a good start as the fireballer went 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA. Though the Dodgers always knew season-ending surgery was a possibility for May, they were hoping to have him back late in the season to patch up some of their rotation issues.

That, of course, won’t be happening, continuing to leave the Dodgers with some questions until they look for reinforcements. They are without Kershaw, who was placed on the IL on Monday. Julio Urías missed more than a month with a left hamstring injury and hasn’t looked sharp this season. Tony Gonsolin hasn’t been a consistent option and has always struggled to get deep into games. Noah Syndergaard is still around the team throwing live bullpen sessions, but that is looking like a failed experiment. Walker Buehler is on the mend from his own Tommy John surgery and may make it back toward the end of this season, if not in 2024. 

All of that has resulted in the Dodgers leaning on rookie right-handers Bobby Miller and Sheehan to handle a lot of the responsibilities in the rotation. On Tuesday, Sheehan didn’t have command of his pitches, needing 37 to get out of the first inning alone. 

“Overall I feel like I’m getting better since I got here, which I’m happy about,” Sheehan said. “But I think this week was obviously my worst so far. Just gotta work on it and come back next week.”

The lack of production from the starters has now left the bullpen more vulnerable. That was also highlighted on Tuesday as Evan Phillips was forced to pitch for the third consecutive night, something he has never done before. He went on to allow three earned runs and blew the save in the ninth, his second of the season.

“I really just wanted to challenge myself to become available for the team, if needed,” Phillips said. “I was called upon tonight. It just didn’t work out.”