Dodgers left hander Brett Anderson made his first professional start in more than eight months on Thursday evening with the Dodgers Advance Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at LoanMart Field, after having undergone back surgery on March 3, 2016 for a bulging disk in his lower back. And while the 28-year-old Midland, Texas native said that he was more concerned with how he pitched than worrying about how he felt, he acknowledged that he felt fine after his three-inning / 36-pitch outing and is pleased with the results.

“It was good to get up and down three times,” Anderson said after his outing. “Some weird plays and circumstances and stuff that you’d rather deal with now with a guy going down in the outfield and delays and stuff that probably doesn’t happen in the big leagues. And then fielding my position in the first inning and getting some of those plays out of the way, and getting back to pitching and worrying about pitching rather than how my body is feeling and this, that and the other, and focusing on getting outs and getting my pitches back to where I want them and all that sort of stuff.”

The delay that Anderson was referring to was an on-field injury to one of the High Desert Mavericks players in the bottom half of the first inning that added an addition ten minutes to his between inning time, and his fielding his position comment was about a comebacker that he fielded when it had been agreed upon before his start that he would (try to) avoid such plays.

Although Anderson’s fastball topped out at (approximately) 89 MPH, his command and control were very good. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

With the initial plan to go three innings and/or 55 pitches, Anderson threw an additional 19 pitches in the Quakes bullpen after his outing to meet the planned 55-pitch limit.

“I had to go throw some more down on the side which is kind of like a normal outing,” Anderson said. “I gave up my fair share of hits and choppers and some ground ball singles and got some ground ball outs and all that sort of thing. I was fairly efficient – 36 pitches and I had to go throw 19 more or so down in the bullpen – that’s always good to be efficient the first time and go into tomorrow and see how my body feels and get ready for another one in five days.”

Anderson allowed one run on five hits while walking none and striking out one in his three innings of work. Of his 36 pitches 25 were strikes and of his nine outs five were ground outs, one a fly out and one a line drive double play to short after a leadoff single in the second inning. And though his fastball velocity only hovered around the 89-MPH mark, his command and control were very good considering it was his first time on the mound in an actual game situation in more than eight months.

As noted, Anderson won’t know the full effects of Thursday night’s rehab outing until he sees how he feels on Friday morning. That said, the 6′-3″ – 230-pound lefty is confident that there will be no issues and that he will be ready to go again in five days. And though where that next outing will be has yet to be determined, the rest of his planned rehab has.

“The best case scenario is to have two more rehab starts and the pitching aspect will come into play more so in those two starts. I just made sure I got through today, obviously that’s the cliche thing,” said Anderson. “First and foremost is to come in tomorrow and make sure everything feels okay and so on and so forth but I’m sure that once I get in there tomorrow I’m sure they’ll tell me where, what and when and all that stuff.”

Should Anderson’s next start be with the Quakes, it will happen next Tuesday, August 2, when the team is on the road against the Stockton Ports at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. And while the when and where of his next two rehabs starts is not yet known, the plan is for him to go five innings and six innings respectively in those outings and then hopefully rejoin the Dodgers thereafter.

Overall, Anderson is pleased with his first live-game action in more that eight months and summed it up accordingly.

“For the first one in a long time, months and months, it was pretty good I would say.”