The Los Angeles Dodgers have dealt with a rash of injuries over the past two months, which includes losing Andrew Heaney to left shoulder discomfort after an impressive first two starts in which he threw 10.1 scoreless innings.
The left-hander began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier this month with a start against the Round Rock Express and retired nine of 11 batters faced over three innings, allowing one run on two hits and collecting five strikeouts without issuing a walk.
Heaney made a second rehab start against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys last week and yielded only two hits over 4.1 scoreless innings while recording five strikeouts.
The 31-year-old is now scheduled to make a third rehab appearance for Double-A Tulsa on Tuesday and will stretch out to five innings, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
Roberts said the plan now is for Heaney to make a third rehab start on Tuesday with Double-A Tulsa (because of travel logistics) and stretch out to “five, five-plus (innings) and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
If all goes well, Heaney could potentially rejoin the Dodgers rotation next week. That would be a change from manager Dave Roberts previously indicating the southpaw would potentially need four Minor League starts before being activated.
When Heaney returns, he will provide a boost to a Dodgers rotation that just had Clayton Kershaw come off the 10-day injured list but lost Walker Buehler to a flexor tendon strain.
Heaney validated mutual trust with Dodgers
At the time of signing a one-year contract with the Dodgers before the MLB lockout began, Heaney voiced confidence he could bounce back from struggling last season and believed in the organization’s track record of refining pitchers.
While it has only been for two starts thus far, Heaney and the Dodgers were seeing that trust play out.
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