In his first start since returning from the injured list for back tightness, 30-year-old Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow was… well… not good, this despite Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ claim to the contrary.

“I think the stuff was good. Certainly, the command was not there,” Roberts told reporters following his team’s ugly 8-3 loss to the their division rival San Francisco Giants.

With all due respect to the Dodgers skipper, Glasnow’s “stuff” was 52 strikes of his 91 total pitches (57.14%) which, quite frankly, isn’t what most people would consider “good.”

Although Glasnow struck out four in his first start since July 5, he also walked four over his 5.0 innings of work. The Newhall, CA native and fifth-round draft pick in 2011 by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Hart High School in Santa Clarita allowed two runs on four hits, including a solo home run by Giants third baseman Matt Chapman to lead off the top of the fourth inning.

“Yeah, I just think, like, mechanics felt a little weird, um, not really in a good rhythm, just kind of the whole night was just kind of a struggle, and, ah, just, yeah, I wasn’t really commanding any of my pitches,” Glasnow said, following the Dodgers loss to The Hated Ones.

As for those three Dodgers runs, the first two were gifted to them, the first on a five-pitch first-inning bases loaded walk by Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages to give the Dodgers an early (and brief) 1-0 lead, and the second on what was ruled a double by Dodgers All-Star and future Hall of Fame first baseman Freddie Freeman that should have been caught for the final out of the eighth inning but instead fell untouched between Giants center fielder Heliot Ramos and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, allowing newly acquired Dodgers shortstop Nick Ahmed to score from first base. Their final run came on a run-scoring 3-6 fielders choice by replacement right fielder Cavan Biggio in the bottom of the ninth.

The bad news – again – is that the Dodgers went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, while stranding five men on base.

With their loss and wins by the second-place Padres, third-place D-backs, fourth-place Giants, and fifth-place Rockies, the NL West shapes up like this:

Play Ball!

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