Twenty-nine hours earlier than his official return to the Dodger Stadium mound, took a second to get himself reacquainted together with his house ballpark.
In an empty Dodger Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, Sheehan walked onto the sphere at Chavez Ravine, climbed up a slope he hadn’t toed for the reason that 2023 season, and practiced his pitching movement a couple of occasions earlier than returning to the clubhouse.
For Sheehan, such dry tosses are a part of his regular pre-start routine. In any ballpark the place he pitches, he likes to get a really feel for the mound and its environment earlier than the sport.
The one distinction this time: how lengthy it had been since he’d taken the bump in a big-league stadium.
After an auspicious rookie season in 2023, by which his 4.92 earned-run common belied the potential he flashed together with his low-arm-slot and high-velocity supply, Sheehan missed all of final season and the primary three months of this marketing campaign after present process Tommy John surgical procedure.
On Wednesday, he lastly accomplished the lengthy street again, spinning 4 spectacular innings in a over the San Diego Padres that ended on within the ninth.
“It was superior,” Sheehan mentioned, after giving up only one run whereas placing out six batters. “As soon as I used to be on the market, it was type of simply again in compete mode when you see a hitter within the field. However positively earlier than after which after, [I was] feeling the feelings of simply the previous 12 months, for positive.”
A former sixth-round draft choose who blossomed into one of many group’s high pitching prospects throughout a powerful minor-league profession, Sheehan grew to become one of many Dodgers’ many current homegrown pitchers to endure a significant surgical procedure after injuring his elbow in spring coaching final 12 months.
As he labored his means again, although, his comparatively seamless restoration course of had fueled pleasure all through the group.
His stuff nonetheless appeared sharp, from a mid-90s mph fastball to a tantalizing changeup-slider mixture. His command had been surprisingly constant throughout a minor-league rehab stint, accumulating 16 strikeouts towards just one stroll in three outings with triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis.
And towards the Padres on Wednesday, the 25-year-old right-hander appeared like he had hardly missed a beat.
He threw 65 pitches, 43 for strikes. He didn’t situation a stroll, whereas yielding solely three hits. And the lone rating towards him got here when second baseman didn’t corral a hard-hit one-hopper with two outs within the high of the second.
“Emmett was implausible,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “Going into it tonight, [I wanted him to] belief his stuff, be on the assault together with his combine. And he did simply that. He flooded the zone, saved them on their heels.”
Sheehan wasn’t the successful pitcher. That honor went to a different former prospect, left-hander , who adopted Sheehan with 5 stellar innings of lengthy reduction by which he flashed his personal promising indicators (together with a fastball that touched 99 mph at one level) after an up-and-down begin to his big-league profession.
For many of his outing, Wrobleski was defending a 3-1 lead the Dodgers took within the backside of the fifth, when hit a leadoff triple, adopted an Andy Pages sacrifice fly with a double, and slumping rookie catcher Dalton Dashing plated the sport’s go-ahead runs on a two-run single.
“You take a look at the expansion of two younger pitchers, and what they did as we speak towards a really formidable ball membership,” Roberts mentioned. “And likewise Dalton, being the catcher again there with the fingers, I believed it was a giant evening for him, as nicely.”
With the Dodgers’ relievers worn out from back-to-back bullpen video games the earlier two nights, Wrobleski went again to the mound within the ninth and gave up two runs after a Muncy throwing error put him in a jam.
However Smith made positive it didn’t matter, coming off the bench within the backside of the inning to whack a walk-off house run simply over the right-field wall.
The Dodgers (46-29) have now clinched a sequence victory on this four-game set towards the Padres (39-34), with the possibility for a sweep Thursday. General, they’re 17-11 in what has been a frightening 28-game stretch during the last month, extending their lead within the to 4½ video games.
“It’s positively been an extended few weeks, taking part in some actually good ball golf equipment, coping with accidents and the whole lot,” Smith mentioned. “However yeah, we’re simply sticking collectively as a crew, grinding by means of it at some point at a time. … Attempt to play good baseball and see what occurs.”
Regardless of the late dramatics, it was Sheehan’s return that had the most important implications on the remainder of the Dodgers’ season, giving their shorthanded rotation a badly wanted, and extremely intriguing, new possibility.
Whereas discussing Sheehan earlier than the sport, Roberts mentioned the Dodgers all the time “preferred his make-up, his toughness, his skill to repeat his supply, the swing-and-miss stuff, the preparation.”
However the way in which he navigated his Tommy John restoration — returning to motion 13 months after present process the process final Might — had added one other ingredient of optimism amongst crew officers.
Roberts famous how Sheehan had elevated his bodily power throughout his rehab, with the as soon as lanky 6-foot-5 pitcher (who joked that he was so nervous throughout his rookie season, he misplaced weight from hardly consuming) now possessing noticeably extra mass.
Roberts additionally defined how Sheehan has “had an opportunity to look at a whole lot of baseball, be taught after which now apply it.”
“I believe that’s going to make him a greater main league pitcher,” Roberts mentioned.
One begin again, indicators of such progress have been already current — from the way in which Sheehan attacked the strike zone, put away hitters and commanded a mound he had longed to pitch off the previous two years.
“He’s not afraid, he’s not gonna run from it and he’s gonna belief his stuff,” Roberts mentioned. “To be ready for tonight and never really feel [out] his means again to the large leagues, in a giant ball sport, a whole lot of credit score goes to him.”
