The Los Angeles Dodgers added more reinforcements last week when they reinstated both Jimmy Nelson and AJ Pollock from the 10-day injured list. Edwin Uceta and Alex Vesia were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City as the corresponding moves.
Nelson had been out since May 23 (retroactive to May 21) due to right forearm inflammation, but wasn’t expected to miss much time. While sidelined, he focused on making a few adjustments to his delivery.
“It’s not stuff. The stuff is still there. My stuff today was good and I was very happy with where it’s at,” Nelson said after facing batters at Dodger Stadium in the final hurdle to clear. “I think there’s a little bit of adjustments that I’ve made over this IL stint.
“Maybe my four-seam fastball has crept up a little bit arm-slot wise. Trying to match that fastball release point with the offspeed stuff so it’s all coming out of the same window. I tried to do it in Spring Training and it wasn’t successful, so kind of put it on the back burner.
“But with a little bit of time here it’s something I’ve been focusing on in throwing programs the last couple days and then live BP.
“It feels much healthier and much better throwing with the fastball a little bit lower, matched up with the offspeed stuff. And it also should help the offspeed stuff play better because now everything is coming out of the same window.”
Nelson decided to make the changes to his delivery after noticing a different arm slot with his pitches while watching video and looking over data. “It was kind of like that coming into spring,” Nelson said.
“It can be tough to make a big change like that in spring, when you’re just trying to get good results. Obviously, I was just trying to make the team in spring and do everything I could. Anytime you try something new, it’s going to take some time to get used to it until it settles in and starts clicking.
“The more you do it, the cleaner it gets and the more consistent it gets. It’s something that’s felt good the last four days but in spring I just didn’t have that time to really try to hammer it. I was just trying to get results.”
Nelson picked up where he left off
Prior to landing on the IL, Nelson strung together seven consecutive scoreless appearances. He tossed a clean inning against the Atlanta Braves over the weekend.
Though a starter by trade, Nelson has thrived in a bullpen role this season, going 1-1 with a 2.29 ERA, 1.72 FIP, 1.18 WHIP and 14.6 strikeouts per nine over 19.2 innings pitched across 17 games (one start).
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