Tyler Anderson made his final start of the regular season on Sunday and turned in another strong performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Colorado Rockies.
Although he took the loss, the left-hander pitched five innings while allowing just two runs and striking out a career-high 10 batters, which he has previously done two other times for the Rockies. “It’s good,” Anderson said about the quality outing in his final start.
“You know, obviously, you don’t want to go out with a loss, but I felt like for the most part, I made pretty good pitches. And I felt like I’m in a good spot with my delivery, so I’ll take that.
“Overall, I think obviously I’d like a little more length too. But in general, I think I just feel good and I feel healthy, which is good.”
The 32-year-old finished the season with a 2.57 ERA in 178.2 innings while earning a first career All-Star Game selection. Anderson’s previous career-low ERA was 3.54, which came in his rookie season of 2016, and since then, he has posted an ERA above 4.35 every year until this year.
While it was a successful season for Anderson so far, he’s more focused on what lies ahead in the coming weeks, when the Dodgers need to win 11 more games to capture another World Series title.
“For me, I think that the regular season was good, but I didn’t want to come here to have a good regular season, I wanted to come play on a team that has a chance to be in the postseason,” Anderson said. “So once that starts hopefully the best starts are ahead of me.”
Anderson next could take the mound in the National League Division Series, which will be the first postseason start of his career, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the southpaw is “excited about this next step.”
Roberts previously announced Anderson earned a spot in the playoff rotation, which he appreciates. “It’s just encouraging that he trusts me to go out there and compete with these guys,” Anderson said.
Anderson will have roughly a two-week long layoff until his next start as the NLDS begins on Oct. 11, and he likely wouldn’t pitch until Oct. 14 or 15. To stay sharp, he expects to throw some simulated games and bullpen sessions.
Dave Roberts expects Tyler Anderson to have big part in Dodgers postseason plans
The Dodgers have yet to announce their playoff rotation order, but Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urías will lead the staff with Anderson likely slated to go in Game 3 or 4. But no matter which game he starts, Roberts expects Anderson to be “a big piece” of the team’s plans.
“I just know that every out, every inning, every pitch is important, but he’s going to take down a lot of innings for us to be good and for us to win a championship,” Roberts added. “So knowing he’s going to start a game here in the first series and beyond, obviously he’s earned that, but he’s a big part of what we’re doing.”
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