Tyler Glasnow continued his march toward pitching in the Dodgers’ opening series, pitching into the fifth inning in a 4-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday at Camelback Ranch.
Glasnow allowed a home run on his second pitch of the game, to Diamondbacks outfielder and leadoff batter Jordan Lawlar, but was otherwise stingy. He gave up only one more hit (a single) and a walk, and struck out five, and was so efficient that he even faced (and retired) one batter in the fifth inning to get to his pitch limit.
Glasnow needed 60 pitches to complete his 4 1/3 innings, only nine more pitches than he used in 2 2/3 innings last Wednesday against Mexico.
He’s the first Dodgers pitcher this spring to pitch more than three innings in a Cactus League game.
On the backfields
Roki Sasaki pitched a B game at Camelback Ranch today to continue his build up, after his first two Cactus League outings had spotty results. Regardless of the performance, the Dodgers have remained confident in Sasaki from the jump, so it’s not really a surprise he’s ticketed for the opening day roster. From Sonja Chen of MLB.com:
Sasaki struck out nine White Sox minor leaguers, with Jack Harris of The California Post noting, “his fastball command still looked a little erratic at times.”
Per David Vassegh of Dodger Talk, manager Dave Roberts also said of Sasaki, “I’m betting on the performance to trend up.”
Also of note on Tuesday, Brock Stewart threw a bullpen session Tuesday morning at Camelback Ranch. After shoulder surgery in October, Stewart won’t be ready for opening day. But that he’s already throwing bullpen sessions at least puts him on the radar for potential addition to the roster at some point in early to mid-April, if all goes well.
Up next
The Dodgers have their first off day of camp on Wednesday (with another coming on March 19), then are back at Camelback Ranch on Thursday night against the Cincinnati Reds (6:05 p.m., SportsNet LA).
