The Los Angeles Dodgers already figured to be deadline-shoppers for a starting pitcher when Bud Norris was removed from Sunday’s start after just 13 pitches. He was diagnosed with back muscle tightness, which Norris and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts later referred to as a lat strain.
While calling on his bullpen by the midway point of games, and at times earlier, has become the norm for Roberts, getting through the series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks was made much easier by Ross Stripling’s presence.
Stripling rejoined the Dodgers on July 23, giving the club a long reliever that’s otherwise been absent from their eight-man bullpen. “Ross has saved us in some games, he really has,” Roberts said after Sunday’s victory.
“With the regular structure of our bullpen, prior to Ross, it would’ve been a lot tougher.” The situation was unlike anything Stripling has ever experienced. “They tell you that you have all the time you need but it’s kind of a goofy way to warm up,” he said.
“Technically, I was ready and felt ready. But it was something I’ve never done before. It was different. I can certainly check it off my baseball bucket list.” Stripling was watching the game from the training room in the clubhouse when he noticed Norris’ sign of injury.
“I looked at [Liberatore] and asked if I should go out there and he’s like, ‘Yeah, run!’ And then you hear our bullpen coach screaming ‘Strip!’ down the hallway. And I’m like, ‘I’m coming,'” was how Stripling recalled the series of events unfolding.
He threw 3.2 innings and allowed two runs on three hits. The relief appearance was Stripling’s fourth this season, three of which have come since he was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Stripling had thrown eight scoreless innings out of the bullpen prior to Sunday and now settles for a 1.54 ERA as a reliever. Stripling’s ability to quickly fill for Norris wasn’t lost on the right-handed starter.
“You guys don’t understand how hard that really is, Norris said. “He wasn’t loose, you have to get mentally prepared as much as you have to get physically prepared. So for him to go out there and give us what he did was really huge. That’s a tough spot to put anybody in.”
