Prior to Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made it clear to reporters that 29-year-old Dodgers right-hander Tony Gonsolin needed to turn things around quickly if he wants to remain in the Dodgers starting rotation.

Abundantly clear.

“Yeah, it’s no secret that the last… yeah, I mean, it’s been a lot of starts that he hasn’t been… he hasn’t pitched well, to be quite frank,” Roberts said, choosing his words carefully. “Last start, it was the victim of one inning, that one big inning that got him, and then, for him to go out there and log six innings was certainly helpful. But given the way other guys are throwing the baseball, he’s going to have to pitch well, and so, I think that he’d be the first to tell you that. But as we start getting guys back (from the injured list) and we start kind of honing in on, you know, the end of the season, you know, we’re going to go with our best pitchers, and that’s the way it should be.”

Somewhere between that last start (on August 7) and his 19th start of the season on Saturday evening, Gonsolin got the message – loud and clear – after his first pitch of the game, that is.

On his very first pitch of the game, Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar absolutely crushed Gonsolin’s 91-mph four-seam fastball that was pretty much right down the middle for a 426-foot home run to deep center field to give Colorado a 1-0 lead before the seats were even warm.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that immediately thereafter, the struggling Vacaville, CA native and Dodgers ninth round draft pick in 2016 out of Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA put that message to work, and how.

After Tovar’s leadoff/first pitch home run, Gonsolin allowed no additional runs and only two additional hits to the next 20 Rockies batters he faced over his 6.0 innings pitched.

“If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s just, you know, when you get hit in the face, you just keep going,” Gonsolin summarized postgame of what was clearly his best outing of the season and one that undoubtedly earned him another start.

“Just trying to execute pitches. I thought I did a much better job of executing pitches today and (we) played really good defense,” Gonsolin answered, when asked how come he was more successful on the mound on Saturday.

His manager concurred.

“I thought he settled in nicely. I thought it was his best outing in quite some time,” Roberts told reporters postgame. “I thought every throw, conviction. I thought, yeah, everything with conviction. He made pitches when he needed to, he pounded the strike zone, used his entire pitch mix, front to back, top of the zone, in and out.

“I thought he had really good fastball command tonight. Austin (Barnes) did a nice job. It was good to see Tony go out there and really pitch the way we really used to see him throw the baseball,” Roberts added.

On the night, Gonsolin allowed just that one run and only those three hits, while walking none and striking out six in his team’s 4-1 win over Colorado.

As for those four Dodgers runs, they were all the result of the long ball as well. Dodgers designated hitter Will Smith quickly tied the game up in the bottom of the first with his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot to center field. Blazing hot Dodgers center fielder James Outman clubbed his 14th round-tripper of the season with a solo shot to right field in the bottom of the second, and Dodgers shortstop Amed Rosario put the game out of reach with his sixth home run of the season – a two run blast to left in the bottom of the seventh – to make it 4-1 Dodgers, the eventual final score.

Bottom line? We hear you, Tony. Loud and clear.

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *