Although the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped their series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 9-3, Tony Gonsolin was effective in his third start of the season.
Originally penciled in to be a key piece of the rotation, Gonsolin suffered a sprained left ankle that caused him to miss roughly one month of the season while on the 15-day injured list.
He was then forced to return to the rotation before fully completing a rehab assignment due to Michael Grove suffering a left groin strain. That required Gonsolin to treat his first two outings as part of the buildup process and he threw eight total innings during that span.
But the right-hander had some more freedom on Monday and turned in his best start of the year, going six innings while giving up no earned runs and three hits. The Brewers did score three unearned runs, which came via a home run, but Gonsolin was pleased with the outing, via SportsNet LA:
“Yeah, I felt pretty good. I felt like I was throwing a lot of strikes, I felt like I was able to manage the pitch count really well. I got deep into the game and made one bad pitch, and it cost us the game.”
Gonsolin has continued to increase his pitch count in each start. On Monday, he threw 80 pitches and feels like he’s no longer needing to stretch out:
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like I’m ready to go for whatever it is. Just a normal start.”
Despite his strong performance, Gonsolin was tabbed with the loss and now sits at 0-1 this year. But perhaps the most encouraging stat from his day is he struck out six hitters while walking none.
Gonsolin figures to be an important piece of the team moving forward, so getting him back to full health and stretched out is positive news for the Dodgers. He should cement himself as a middle-of-the-rotation piece behind Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urías, which gives L.A. a strong group with Dustin May included.
Tony Gonsolin was confident velocity would return/h2>
Gonsolin’s velocity on his fastball during his first two stars was down a few ticks from his 2022 average of 93.1 mph, but he wasn’t concerned.
“Yeah, definitely,” answered Gonsolin when asked if he was confident in adding more velocity in future starts. “I feel like right now it’s coming out OK. Numbers are solid on it, so just a matter of time.”
On Monday, Gonsolin averaged 93.2 mph with his heater, which topped out at 93.9 and had a minimum velocity of 91.8.
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