Dodgers’ Mark Prior thinks Clayton Kershaw’s recent issues relate to timing in his delivery
WASHINGTON – Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior wouldn’t call Clayton Kershaw’s diminished velocity over his past two starts a red flag warning of more trouble with the left-hander’s shoulder. But it certainly wasn’t what he expected to see.
“I think that was surprising to all of us,” Prior said. “The Arizona game (Kershaw’s August 29 start), he was effective for five innings and pitched well but probably not up to the standards that he’s set for himself and he knows that. But the velocity was something that kind of came out of nowhere. Or at least was unexpected for everybody.”
Kershaw averaged a season-low 89.6 mph with his fastball against the Diamondbacks but held them to one run on three hits and three walks in five innings. In his next start on Tuesday in Miami, the velocity was down even further, to 88.4 mph. It was the second-lowest of Kershaw’s career. The only time it was lower (May 2018), Kershaw went on the Injured List with a back injury.
Kershaw insisted after the game in Miami that his shoulder feels “fine.” The focus in the days since then has been on his delivery, Prior said.
“There’s some stuff in the delivery that hopefully will free him up to maximize and get his timing back,” the pitching coach said. “I think so much of it is a timing situation. I think that’s where you get into a situation where guys who’ve had – whether it’s elbow or shoulder or anything, in the middle of a season you’re trying to come back and you do things because you feel fine but you just don’t know subconsciously what you might have tweaked to get back to that point.
“I thought he had some moments the other day, but clearly his stuff wasn’t what it’s been in the past. I think it’s just kind of a byproduct of where he’s at right now and kind of working through some things and working through some things with his delivery where his timing is just a little bit off. We talked about a couple little adjustments with his delivery, trying to put him back in those positions that hopefully frees him up a little bit. The caveat with Clayton is that his delivery is so consistent that these are things that are on the margins that hopefully pay dividends. But we won’t know until he gets into his next start.”
Kershaw is scheduled to start Monday against the San Diego Padres. He will have had five days’ rest between starts and has not pitched on less than that since returning from six weeks on the IL with an unspecified injury to his shoulder.
“I’m sure it’s not zero. But to say how much, it’s hard to tell,” Prior said of how much of a factor Kershaw’s shoulder might be in the diminished quality of his pitches over the past two starts.
“Obviously I’ve been through a lot of shoulder stuff. You do things and you feel physically fine. But it’s a little bit of a different degree in the way you’re delivering the baseball. Sometimes you get too rotational trying to create energy in different ways than you have in the past. And sometimes you can mask those things and put a band-aid on it for two or three starts. But eventually they can kind of rear their heads. There’s so many variables that go into it. But if there’s one guy I obviously would never rule out or count against, it’s him.”
MILLER LIGHT
By contrast, rookie right-hander Bobby Miller finished last season with a shoulder injury that he acknowledges bothered him during the offseason as well. He was handled carefully this spring and started his season late.
But he has thrown a career-high 116 innings between Triple-A and the majors this season and said, “Honestly right now, I’m feeling better than ever.”
“My arm is bouncing back great. My shoulder is bouncing back great,” he said after his start Saturday. “My body feels outstanding right now.”
Miller credits a number of factors for that including the constant attention of the Dodgers’ training staff, an improved diet that allowed him to drop from “240, 245” pounds last season to 230 this year and a refined approach to his work between starts.
“Coming up in the minor leagues, the big thing for me was I would touch the mound a couple times between starts,” he said. “Now I just do one bullpen (session) in between starts. Sometimes I shorten them up. I just think I was touching the mound too much between starts in the minor leagues. That was probably part of the reason why I got hurt last year.”
FRESH ARM
Right-hander Gus Varland was placed on the Injured List with right knee inflammation before Sunday’s game and right-hander Wander Suero was promoted from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Varland was 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA in eight appearances with the Dodgers this season including the loss in Saturday’s 11-inning defeat by the Nationals.
Suero made four appearances for the Dodgers in May but has spent most of the season with OKC, going 5-3 with 16 saves and a 3.95 ERA over 45 appearances.
UP NEXT
Padres (RHP Pedro Avila, 1-2, 2.19 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Clayton Kershaw, 12-4, 2.61 ERA), Monday, 7:10 p.m. SportsNet LA, 570 AM