Blake Treinen returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen in late July after missing more than three months due to a right forearm strain, and things have not been great so far.
Treinen was expected to provide the Dodgers with another late-inning weapon out of their bullpen, but he has failed to complete a full inning in three of his appearances. And in his latest, Treinen allowed back-to-back home runs that put the Dodgers behind the Toronto Blue Jays.
Treinen has now allowed eight hits and walked four batters in 3.2 innings since returning, while pitching to a 7.36 ERA. But despite his numbers, Treinen has actually been happy with how he’s performed up until he blew the save on Sunday.
“Honestly, I think my execution has been really good,” Treinen said. “I’ve had some tough luck hits through the hole, which, tip your hat to the hitter. Today was lack of execution. Today’s been the first day I feel like my execution has been really poor.
“What’s really been frustrating for me outside of the last two outing is the first batter. Walks haven’t been good for me. Today was better, last outing against Toronto was really good too. So as long as I’m in the zone, I’m fine. I just got to be better with two strikes and leaving a pitch right down the middle isn’t good.”
Treinen also believes his stuff is at the same level it’s been at when he’s been effective, but struggled with his control. “I thought my stuff today was great,” he said.
“It’s just a location thing. Literally just as center cut as you can throw them is where they hit them, can’t be successful in the big leagues like that.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts agreed with Treinen’s assessment that his stuff is still good, but the location needs to be better.
“The stuff can be good, but you still got to make good pitches,” Roberts said. “And certainly, when you get count leverage, you got to be able to try to get soft contact or swing and miss. Right now, I think that at times, he’s getting behind. But I think the stuff is good, it’s just more so kind of tightening up the command.”
It’s also not believed to be related to anything wrong with Treinen, which is good news for a Dodgers’ bullpen that can’t afford anymore losses. Instead, Roberts thinks it’s just normal rust for a guy who hasn’t pitched much in a long time.
“Obviously, he’s in a good place as far as physically, health-wise,” Roberts said. “But then I think he’s had probably four or five outings, so just kind of getting that dialed in, getting to rhythm, and getting the ball where it needs to be.”
Blake Treinen’s role changing?
Roberts has continued to rely on Treinen in big spots, but that could be changing moving forward, at least until the right-hander gets back on track and shacks off some of that rust.
“Yeah,” Roberts replied when asked if Treinen could be used in low-leverage until he’s back on track. “I mean, I think that he had some right-handers, and so he’s the guy. But, yeah, we got other guys too. You got to look at sort of the options and who pitched prior, and kind of then make decisions. But we still need him to be good.”
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