Tyler Glasnow charged with three runs in loss

Rebounding nicely from a couple of subpar outings, Glasnow allowed just three hits and three hard-hit balls tonight. He’s now 5-1 with a 3.46 ERA. His last start of the regular season will likely come Thursday against the Padres.

Glasnow tossed a scoreless first inning before the Marlins got to him for three runs in the second, including a two-run homer by Graham Pauley. After a clean third and fourth, he started the fifth inning with a pair of walks, leaving at 91 pitches with seven strikeouts. One of the inherited runners would get across to score. The 33-year-old right-hander will take a 3.50 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and a 77/21 K/BB ratio across 61 2/3 innings into a start against the Giants in Los Angeles on Friday.

Glasnow was hit pretty hard and issued three walks, but he struck out eight and would have had a quality start if he hadn’t been brought back out to give up a double to start the seventh. The runner later scored off Alex Vesia. It’s the second time in 10 starts this season that Glasnow has allowed four runs. Thanks to the Dodgers’ comeback, he still hasn’t taken a loss while going 4-0 with a 3.12 ERA. He’ll face the Marlins next weekend.

A rare lower-stress victory for the Dodgers, who had just gone 1-4 while playing five one-run games in a row. Glasnow had a bad first inning in his return from the IL last Tuesday against the Braves, but he’s been excellent in 11 innings since. Both hits he gave up today were singles, and he finished up with a 34 percent CSW while striking out six. He’ll take on the Nationals next time out.

It sounds highly unlikely that Ohtani will make his return to Los Angeles’ rotation this weekend based on Roberts adding that the two-way superstar isn’t feeling 100 percent physically due to ongoing left knee and right biceps issues. The club is expected to make a final decision following Saturday afternoon’s contest in Detroit. Regardless, it’ll be Tyler Glasnow doing the heavy lifting on Sunday. The general expectation remains that Ohtani will return to the Dodgers’ rotation in the near future, but it doesn’t sound imminent after Friday’s abbreviated bullpen session didn’t go exactly as anticipated. Simply put, the franchise can’t really afford to take any chances with the postseason right around the corner. There should be additional clarity on his status in the coming days.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters Ohtani is trending towards starting against the Tigers on Sunday. There should be a definitive update on his status leading into the weekend but all signs point to the generational talent making his first start for Los Angeles since early July. It sounds like there’s a possibility that Ohtani piggybacks with Tyler Glasnow in some capacity for workload reasons this weekend.

All of the runs came in the first, and he actually should have given up one more, but a wild pitch that would have scored Michael Harris II was wrongly called a foul ball. After that, though, Glasnow was terrific. He allowed just two singles and walked none over his final four innings, and his stuff was excellent throughout. There’s no guarantee he’ll remain healthy in September, but if he does, he could be a top 20 SP for the month.

After 3 1/2 months away, Glasnow will make his return from his back issues tonight against the Braves.

With Tyler Glasnow back and Shohei Ohtani nearing a return as well, there simply isn’t room to keep the 31-year-old southpaw in the club’s six-man rotation. He’ll be available out of the bullpen beginning on Tuesday.

It’ll be Glasnow’s first MLB start since May 6 after 3 1/2 months off with back problems. He won’t be on a specific pitch count after throwing 77 pitches in his last rehab start, and it should be safe to start him in mixed leagues.