The Los Angeles Dodgers extended their winning streak to five games and clinched a postseason berth for the ninth consecutive season with an 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
Tony Gonsolin put forth a solid effort in his second start since coming off the 10-day injured list, giving up just two hits, yielding two walks and collecting six strikeouts over five scoreless innings.
“I felt like I was really effective at getting strike one,” Gonsolin said of what allowed him to be so efficient against the Diamondbacks. “That definitely gave me a little count leverage and I was way more efficient.”
Gonsolin’s command was much improved on Tuesday as he was able to regularly get ahead in the count and attack the strike zone all night.
“Just feeling more comfortable within my mechanics, not trying to overthrow the fastball and not trying to be too fine with some of the offspeed stuff,” Gonsolin said. “Just attacking guys.”
Gonsolin believes overthrowing his fastball earlier in the season could potentially have led to his shoulder injury. “It could’ve been some of that, along with me wanting there to be a little more velo,” he said.
“But now it feels like it’s coming out a lot freer and I’m not as concerned with the velocity.”
Gonsolin’s fastball touched in the mid-90’s against the Diamondbacks, which was nearly one mph faster than his season average of 93.7 mph. “Probably a good part of that and definitely just feeling good,” Gonsolin said of the increased velocity his fastball had.
“I wasn’t trying to throw too hard and it was coming out great.”
Gonsolin feels ‘great’ after exceeding innings target
The original plan heading into Tuesday’s contest against the Diamondbacks was for Gonsolin to log four innings and/or throw 60 pitches. He exceeded both of those targets and wound up throwing 67 pitches in the outing.
“I feel great,” Gonsolin said after the game. “Post-throwing got all my recovery stuff in, all my shoulder stuff, and I feel great right now. We’ll see how I come in.”
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