Rich Hill has been through a lot in his professional career, as he was out of the league completely in 2015, and playing for the Long Island Ducks in an independent league.
He revived his career with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics at the end of 2015 and carried that success into 2016. It made Hill a target of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who acquired the left-hander prior to the non-waiver trade deadline.
Hill found a home in Los Angeles, as he re-signed with the Dodgers on a three-year, $48 million contract last winter.
There were concerns about the 37-year-old going into the season, as he dealt with blisters for most of the previous season. The blisters forced Hill to the disabled list just one start into the 2017 season, and after coming back for one start, he landed back on the DL again until May 16.
From then on, though, Hill remained healthy and had a very productive season as the team’s No. 2 starter behind Clayton Kershaw.
In 25 starts, Hill went 12-8 with a 3.32 ERA, 3.72 FIP and 1.09 WHIP while striking out 166 and walking 49 in 135.2 innings of work.
He was flawless in the month of July, going 4–0 with 1.45 ERA and 40 strikeouts compared to only five walks in five starts. It earned him National League Pitcher of the Month honors.
Despite the deadline acquisition of Yu Darvish, it was Hill that went into the postseason as the team’s second starter, as he pitched Game 2 in each of the three postseason series’.
While Hill didn’t go the length he would’ve liked to because of the Dodgers’ dominant bullpen, he had a solid postseason, tossing 17.2 innings across four starts, giving up 13 hits and five runs (2.55 ERA).
2017 Highlight
For the second consecutive season with the Dodgers, Hill was in the midst of a perfect game. Unlike in 2016 against the Miami Marlins when Dave Roberts removed him from the game due to blister issues, Hill was given the opportunity to continue pitching against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hill induced a ground ball to leadoff the ninth inning, only for third baseman Logan Forsythe to boot it and have his error end the perfect-game bid. Hill kept the no-hitter through nine innings, but the only problem was that his teammates didn’t give him any runs of support, so the game went to extra innings.
The Dodgers again didn’t score any runs in the top of the 10th inning, and with Hill’s pitch count still manageable, Roberts sent him out there for the bottom of the 10th.
Unfortunately, Hill gave up a leadoff, walk-off home run to Josh Harrison to lose the game 1-0. Despite the loss, it does not take away from how masterful Hill was that night, giving up just the one hit and one run while striking out 10 without allowing a walk in nine-plus innings.
2018 Outlook
Hill still has two years remaining on his contract, so he heads into 2018 as a lock to be in the Dodgers rotation. He will look to repeat his success from the last couple of seasons while avoiding the DL.
