With their ugly 8-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night, the barely NL West first-place Dodgers (by .007 over the San Diego Padres) are one game away from being swept for the first time this season. Add to that the loss of 34-year-old future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw to the IL on Thursday (joining David Price, Mitch White, Caleb Ferguson, Andrew Heaney, Dustin May, Danny Duffy, and Jimmy Nelson), and the Dodgers starting rotation is a veritable trainwreck; especially with their three remaining starters (Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, and Julio Urías) unable to pick up wins in their respective starts against a suddenly-red-hot Phillies team over the past three days.

As such, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters postgame on Saturday night that 25-year-old right-hander Michael Grove was being called up from Double-A Tulsa to start Sunday’s series finale against Philadelphia.

“Michael Grove is going to start tomorrow, so he’ll make his Major League debut, that’s going to be exciting,” Roberts said, clearly trying to be optimistic in a less-than-optimistic situation. “So just recently, obviously having [Ryan] Pepiot make his outing and his debut, and then to have Michael make his outing tomorrow, it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be exciting.”

As Dodgers fans may recall, Grove was selected by the Dodgers in the second round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. The Wheeling, WV native appeared in 21 games (all starts) with the (then) Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, and thus far, 26 games (24 starts) with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers. He has not pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers; not yet, at least.

Although Groves’s combined Minor League record of 1-10 and 6.60 ERA is the first thing that jumps out at you, there is a valid reason – he underwent Tommy John surgery following his senior season at West Virginia University. That said, he owns an impressive 2.76 ERA, a 32.8% strikeout rate, and a 7.5% walk rate over 16.1 innings pitched at Double-A Tulsa thus far this season, suggesting that he has fully recovered from his surgery and again pitching at the level for which he was drafted so highly.

But baseball is a cold business, and, in all likelihood, it will probably be a one-and-done thing with Grove; especially as the walking wounded begin to make their way back from the IL.

Then again, if he can put up numbers like he has at Double-A Tulsa this season with the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon having completely bypassed Triple-A OKC, it is possible that he may never pitch at Minor League Baseball’s highest level.

…and wouldn’t that be something.

Play Ball!

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