Asked to be a rock, Gavin Stone comes through
by Cary Osborne
For the first 15 batters and after nearly every one of his 57 pitches through five innings, it was the same look.
Gavin Stone received the baseball from catcher Will Smith. He cleaned the pitching rubber with a sweep of his right foot. Then he fired.
He worked so quickly that the pitch clock operator played a quick one-two with his index finger across the control panel, jumping rapidly from a green start button to a red stop button to reset the clock.
It was easily the best start of Stone’s career in the Dodgers’ 5–2 win on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
“We needed it. We needed the length. We needed him to put up zeroes. He was fantastic all night,” said manager Dave Roberts. “This is what can happen when you pitch with conviction, and he was on the attack from pitch one flooding the zone, making those guys uncomfortable and using his entire pitch mix.”
Stone took a perfect game into the sixth inning and had a no-hitter through 5 2/3 innings before a barrage of hard-hit balls from Padre hitters broke up his bid for history and then his shutout.
Stone took on more damage in the seventh inning, allowing a Tyler Wade RBI single. But he left after 6 2/3 innings with the Dodgers still leading 4–2 at the time.
This was the first time in Stone’s Major League career that he pitched into the seventh inning. It was the second time in his professional career that he completed more than six innings. The last time was June 30, 2022, when he was dominating hitters for Double-A Tulsa and beginning to make a name for himself in the industry. The Dodgers needed it after using six relievers in Friday’s 8–7 loss in 11 innings.
Despite the difficulties of his rookie year last season, the Dodgers have maintained faith that the right-hander and former top-shelf pitching prospect would have games like this.
“I feel like there’s a big difference from last year to this year in how I feel on the mound,” Stone said.
After earning a spot in the Dodger starting rotation to begin this season, Stone kept the Dodgers in the game on March 31, allowing three runs over five innings in an eventual 5–4 Los Angeles win.
It was a step forward.
Saturday was a leap forward.
Stone filled the strikezone through five innings with his sinker and changeup, throwing the two pitches for strikes at a 77.4% clip to that point and getting 10 outs off the combination.
But his poise added to the impressive performance.
With the Padres unable to get a hit through the first 13 batters of the game, San Diego left fielder Jurickson Profar attempted to bunt on the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning. Stone followed with a cutter inside and at the letters. Profar then stared him down and then had words with Smith.
After benches cleared and a short delay, Stone stood again on the hill, swiped the rubber with his foot and fired away. He induced a flyout from Profar and ended the inning with a Ha-Seong Kim flyout.
The Padres tied the score 1–1 when Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled a run home in the sixth inning, but the Dodger offense fought back for Stone, posting three runs in the bottom of the frame with Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts RBI singles and a Shohei Ohtani RBI-sacrifice fly.
Stone’s progress comes during a time when the Dodgers have a need.
Second-year starter Bobby Miller went on the injured list on Saturday with right shoulder inflammation. Roberts said Miller wasn’t recovering as quickly after his starts and the Dodgers wanted to be cautious this early in the season.
“I think there is something where Gavin’s understanding that he’s got to up his game,” Roberts said. “He’s going to have a runway, some opportunity, and he’s got to be good.”
