Dodgers News: Tony Gonsolin Chased Early as LA Turns to Heaney with Series in the Balance

When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts named Tony Gonsolin his Game 3 starter, the reasoning was clear: He wanted a full, rested bullpen knowing that Gonsolin wasn’t built up for more than about 75 pitches.

But there had to have been a second, unstated reason Roberts wanted the whole bullpen available: No one had any idea how effective Gonsolin would be, having thrown just two innings in the last five weeks.

We got our answer pretty early, as Gonsolin just wasn’t sharp and didn’t have command of his offspeed pitches. As a result, Roberts was forced to transition to Plan B a lot earlier than he had hoped, going to Andrew Heaney with the Padres leading 1-0 and threatening to tack on more with one out in the second inning.

Heaney came in with runners on first and third, and he got Jurickson Profar on a weird play where Profar was trying to bunt for a hit and instead stood at the plate and got tagged out by catcher Austin Barnes. Juan Soto followed with an inning-ending popup, and Heaney was out of the jam.

It’s still early in the game and time will tell if Plan B can get the job done for Los Angeles, but Roberts was quick with the trigger, and that’s all you can really hope for in that situation.

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