Gavin Stone has been a pleasant surprise all year for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but on Wednesday turned in one of his worst starts of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The right-hander allowed four runs on seven hits and issued three walks while collecting only three strikeouts over a season-low-tying three innings pitched.
Stone struggled to execute his pitches early in at-bats, which led to several favorable counts for Diamondbacks hitters. “Yeah, that’s really it. Just executing pitches early in counts, that was the biggest thing,” Stone said of his biggest weakness after the 12-4 loss.
Stone noted the command issues were more from simply missing his spot as opposed to not having a good feel. “Just missing,” he explained. “Just adjusting the sides, got to bring it in a little bit. But I mean, honestly, I felt good, just a little off.”
Stone was able to tell early on that he didn’t have his best stuff against the Diamondbacks. “Yeah, like I said, my arm felt good. But yeah, just the command wasn’t there completely,” he said.
The poor outing followed the best start of Stone’s career last week, when he threw a complete-game shutout against the Chicago White Sox. “No, there wasn’t,” Stone answered when asked if there was any residual effects from his last outing.
“I mean, I wasn’t thinking anything about that. I mean, they’re good team. They put up great at-bats. Really, I just wasn’t executing.”
Stone was tabbed with a no-decision against the Diamondbacks, and for the season, owns a 9-2 record, 3.03 ERA, 3.51 FIP and 1.20 WHIP in 92 innings pitched over 16 starts.
Gavin Stone struggles against D-Backs
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts praised the Diamondbacks lineup for making things tough for Stone from the start of his outing.
“I think tonight, we just got to give those guys credit,” Roberts began.
“From the first hitter all the way to the ninth hitter, I just thought they took good at-bats against him. He had nothing to really put them away. There were pitches at times where he made really good pitches with the changeup, with the fastball. But overall, location wasn’t quite there.
“Stuff, velocity, was really good. But again, they spoiled a lot of pitches. They made him work, got the pitch count up really quickly. And you know, even for him to get through four innings was a grind. But he’s been big for us all year long, and so you can’t expect him to be perfect every time out.”
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