Eric

Lauer

Sasaki was pulled from Wednesday’s start against the Braves after the blister issue cropped up. No word yet on how long he’ll be shelved for, but he’ll miss at least one trip through the Dodgers’ rotation. Eric Lauer will move back from the bullpen to take his place in the club’s six-man rotation for the time being.

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.

Lauer surrendered a run in the first inning on a pair of hits. The Rockies brought two more runs in to score in the third on a walk and two doubles. After a clean fourth, Willi Castro took Lauer deep for a solo homer in the fifth. His day would be done after five frames at 87 pitches. He struck out six. The 31-year-old left-hander will take a 4.79 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and a 69/32 K/BB ratio across 103 1/3 innings into a start against the Braves in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Glasnow will have a rehab start on Friday and another after that, likely on next Wednesday, before being a candidate to come off the injured list. That would put him on track to start in the big leagues during the last week of August against the Braves or Tigers. Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer are candidates to move to the bullpen when Glasnow returns.

Lauer allowed just four hits, and he struck out a solid six against two walks. It’s a vast improvement — albeit against a vastly worse team — than his six runs on 11 hits against the Cubs, and more inline with how Lauer has pitched since being acquired by the Dodgers from Toronto. The southpaw seems likely to give up his rotation spot at some point, but for now, he’s scheduled to face the Rockies in Colorado next week.

Even though they have Thursday off, the Dodgers didn’t get aggressive in removing Lauer today; he was allowed to give up five straight hits and three runs with two outs in the fourth inning. The Dodgers offense almost left him off the hook by scoring five times to close within one run in the eighth, but it went as his first loss for the team; he’s now 5-1 with a 3.72 ERA in 55 2/3 innings since being sent off by the Blue Jays. Lauer should start again Tuesday against the Royals, but that might be his last turn for a while with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow on the way back.

Lauer was originally slated to move to a bulk relief role, but the team decided to send Emmet Sheehan down to Triple-A and keep Lauer in the rotation. Of course, Blake Snell (elbow) is also close to returning, and Tyler Glasnow (back) is beginning a rehab assignment, which means Lauer may be moving to the bullpen shortly. For now, he’ll start Wednesday against the Cubs.

Lauer averaged 92.1 mph with his fastball tonight, matching his season high. and allowed only three hard-hit balls. He’s now 5-0 with a 2.96 ERA in nine outings for the Dodgers after going 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA with the Blue Jays, and the Angels are already preparing to make him a three-year, $39 million offer in November. First, though, he’ll face the Cubs on Tuesday.

The runs scored on homers from Alec Bohm and Bryan De La Cruz. Lauer had five runs to play with, so he won for the fifth time this season tonight. He’s 4-0 with a 3.35 ERA for the Dodgers after going 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA for the Blue Jays. He’ll likely face the Mariners next week.

He’ll be followed by Emmet Sheehan on Saturday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday. The Dodgers have not announced when Shohei Ohtani will return to the rotation. That makes it likely that it’ll be Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer in some order for the first two games against the Phillies in Philadelphia to open next week.