Los Angeles Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow was sparkling yet again on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates as he allowed only one run and struck out nine in six innings of work.
Just one problem – the Dodgers were shut out and Glasnow took the 1-0 loss.
It's a worrying trend of late. Glasnow has been stellar this season, but the Dodgers offense keeps letting him down – per Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register:
“Tyler Glasnow keeps putting up zeroes when he's on the mound — for the wrong team. Dodgers haven't scored a run for Glasnow in his past 5 starts. They had to really go to great lengths to stay that unsupportive Tuesday — by going 0 for 12 with RISP.”
The Dodgers have not scored with Glasnow on the mound since his May 4 start against the Atlanta Braves. He has pitched 30 innings since then.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spoke about the team's lack of offense.
Dave Roberts talks about Tyler Glasnow’s performance and why the offense struggled.
“You get a guy on second base a couple times and we couldn’t move him over to create that run-scoring situation,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When you’re playing in tight ballgames, those things come to light.”
Glasnow didn't seem to be aware of the trend.
Tyler Glasnow speaks on his first start back in Pittsburgh and his performance today.
“I didn’t know,” Glasnow said of the anemic run support. “But baseball is hard. I mean, beginning of the year, I feel like every time I pitched, it was like 10 runs. It just kind of has to even itself out.”
Dodgers' Tyler Glasnow is dominating despite lack of run support
It's still relatively early, but it does look like we're finally getting that healthy Tyler Glasnow season that baseball fans have always dreamed about. He's made all 13 of his starts, he leads in strikeouts and even if he hasn't been dominant every time out, he's battled through tough outings to post over six innings per start.
And if Glasnow merely maintains his 2.93 ERA, which isn't near the top of the league rankings this early in the season, then he's still got a great chance to win the Cy Young, thanks to his 104 strikeouts through 80 innings. That puts him on pace to strikeout roughly 250 batters, which hasn't been done by a Dodgers pitcher since Clayton Kershaw struck out 301 batters in 2015.
The Dodgers and Pirates are back at in on Wednesday. Dodgers lefty James Paxton (5-0, 3.29 ERA) will try to stay unbeaten when he starts Wednesday night against Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes (2-0, 2.45).
Skenes has had nine or more strikeouts in two of his four career starts.
