LOS ANGELES — Dodgers reliever Kirby Yates faced hitters on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, his second simulated game in four days. The veteran right-hander will begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday with Triple-A Oklahoma City in Tacoma.
Left-hander Tanner Scott, who faced hitters on Friday at Dodger Stadium, will also start a rehab assignment with Oklahoma City on Tuesday. They’ll join bullpen mate Michael Kopech, who began his rehab assignment in Triple-A on Thursday.
Yates might be the soonest of the reliever
trio to return, out since August 1 with lower back pain.
“Health feels pretty good, but there’s a baseball aspect to this too. I don’t think I was that great before I went on the IL,” Yates said Saturday. “There are some things I have to get back to doing, the feels and all that stuff on the mound. I’ve had a little time to do that. I love kind of where it’s going right now.”
Yates has a 4.31 ERA in 39 games this season with 44 strikeouts against 12 walks in 31 1/3 innings. His six home runs allowed are double his total from last season, when he pitched nearly twice as many innings as his current total. Yates had a 38.8-percent strikeout rate before landing on the injured list in May, and missed three weeks with a right hamstring strain. Since returning, Yates’ strikeout rate was 24.1 percent in his 17 appearances.
“Just getting back to having one thought, going out there and attacking hitters, and being able to put them away. For a big portion of the year I’ve been able to get to two strikes, but I haven’t been able to put guys away as effectively as I have in my career,” Yates said. “It’s been frustrating. But I think we’re getting right back to that, and it’s not too far away.”
On Saturday, Yates faced Buddy Kennedy, who joined the Dodgers on a waiver claim on Friday, and Hyeseong Kim in a simulated inning. The right-handed Kennedy batted three times and the lefty Kim hit twice. Kennedy had the closest thing to a simulated hit, though it was a catchable ball hit to center field. This was more about Yates hitting a pitch count and working on things.
“The split was the thing he’s been mindful of, and I think he probably threw nine of them, something like that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought five or six of them he caught really, really good, and the other ones weren’t bad. I thought today was a productive day.”
Scott has been out since July 22 with left elbow inflammation after feeling a stinger in his left arm. He faced hitters on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
Kopech is the only one of the three sidelined relievers to be on the 60-day injured list, as he returns from meniscus surgery. Kopech was not sharp in his first rehab outing on Thursday for Oklahoma City, but he’ll be there a while, as the earliest he can return is August 27, after his 60 days are up.
Since the All-Star break, the Dodgers bullpen has a 3.40 ERA but a 4.32 FIP with the third-highest walk rate (11.3 percent) and a bottom-third strikeout rate (21.7 percent). The Dodgers’ six blown saves since the break are third-most in MLB, one behind the Yankees and Rangers.
Kim, out since July 29 with left shoulder bursitis, stayed behind to continue rehabbing this week at Dodger Stadium while the team was playing in Anaheim. He’ll likely begin a rehab assignment at some point this coming week as well, though the details haven’t yet been revealed.
“He’s in a good spot,” Roberts said of Kim. “It’s going to be soon.”
