Dodgers' pitching issues reach another level in loss to Braves

Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack speaks with catcher Will Smith and shortstop Miguel Rojas against the Braves.

Staff Writer

Sept. 13, 2024 Updated 8:30 PM PT

ATLANTA — Those storm clouds that have hovered over the Dodgers’ pitching staff this season? They returned with a downpour Friday at Truist Park.

After Tyler Glasnow suffered a pregame setback in his recovery from elbow tendinitis, canceling a scheduled simulated game because of continued discomfort in his arm, the Dodgers then watched one of their more consistent pitchers, Landon Knack, get knocked around in a 6-2 loss to Atlanta Braves, a defeat that fittingly came amid scattered showers on a cool Georgia night.

As a result of Knack’s season-worst performance, the Dodgers’ potential postseason pitching options once again are looking thin.

“He was just missing off the plate, getting into some bad counts and they took some good swings,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But my message to Landon on the bench was it happened, he’s had nothing but good outings for us. This was a bad one. Let’s wash it and move on.”

Glasnow’s “setback,” as Roberts described it before the game, was the day’s biggest issue. Had Glasnow completed his two-inning simulated game as scheduled, he would have been on track to return before the end of the regular season. If the Dodgers could have added him to a rotation anchored by Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who returned last week from his own extended injury), their potential October pitching situation might not have looked so dire.

Instead, Glasnow’s uncertain status only underscores the Dodgers’ need for others to step up — even though Roberts said a Friday scan on Glasnow’s arm was described by the club’s medical staff as “promising.”

“The scan didn’t show anything,” Roberts said, “which is a good thing.”

Knack’s outing, however, left a different impression. Rather than building on a strong rookie season, having entered the night with a 2-3 record and 3.00 earned-run average in his first 11 starts, Knack suffered his worst start, giving up five runs — including two-run home runs by Gio Urshela and Jorge Soler in the second inning — in a 64-pitch outing that was over by the start of the third.

“Just really [not] that sharp today,” Knack said. “Missing slightly off with the fastball. Just wasn’t getting ahead of guys. Then when they got their pitches, they took advantage.”

Knack has been in contention for a possible No. 4 spot in the rotation — assuming Glasnow could come back before the end of the season.

“Obviously you can’t help but think about that, as much as you don’t want to,” Knack said. “But honestly, it’s continuing to take it a day at a time. Focusing on the future you can’t really take advantage of the present.”

Though the second-round pick doesn’t have the most overpowering stuff, with an average fastball of about 93 mph, he had been more productive than other injury-plagued arms such as Walker Buehler (1-5, 5.95 ERA), Bobby Miller (2-4, 8.17 ERA) or even Clayton Kershaw (2-2, 4.50 ERA), who remains sidelined by a toe injury.

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman receives a standing ovation from Atlanta fans before his first at-bat at Truist Park.

While Roberts was adamant that Friday’s game won’t change that — “He’s definitely put his name in the conversation,” Roberts said — Knack’s struggles against a Braves team fighting for its playoff lives in the National League wild-card race was an ominous audition for a potential postseason role.

Though the 26-year-old limited damage in a three-hit, one-run first inning, it all came unglued in the second.

After Orlando Arcia led off with a walk, Urshela opened up a 3-0 Braves lead by pounding an elevated, 2-and-0 fastball over the wall in left-center field.

Whit Merrifield followed with a single. Then, two batters later, Soler hit another towering drive, jumping on a hanging curveball for a two-run blast that carried over the Dodgers’ left-field bullpen.

While the Braves didn’t score again, the inning didn’t end there. Marcell Ozuna singled. Travis d’Arnaud walked. And by the time Knack recorded the third out on a fielder’s choice grounder, he’d thrown 44 pitches in the inning.

Roberts had no choice but to pull the plug.

“Overall, his whole body of work for us has been fantastic,” Roberts said. “It’s just one of those nights where the command wasn’t where it’s been.”

The Dodgers kept it close the rest of the way. Miguel Rojas hit a home run in the third inning. Teoscar Hernández doubled and scored on Tommy Edman’s single in the fourth. But with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman going hitless in 11 at-bats — Freeman was the only member of the Big Three to even reach base, walking in the first inning after receiving a warm welcome from his old home fans — the club got no closer, as their division lead shrunk to 4½ games.

The loss, which was the Dodgers’ fifth out of their last eight games, was bad enough. The accompanying pitching concerns, however, ensured it was a dark day, with storm clouds literally and figuratively hanging overhead.

Landon Knack gets knocked around by Braves as Dodgers’ pitching woes grow

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