Analysis: After sweep by Phillies, Dodgers face few easy answers to mounting pitching problems

PHILADELPHIA — For the better part of almost two months, the Dodgers have been a .500 team.

And the biggest problem in that time — a lack of reliable starting pitching from an injury-plagued, rookie-reliant rotation — only seems to get worse with each passing day.

In the offseason, the Dodgers thought they had fixed their starting pitching woes. They traded for Tyler Glasnow. They signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They spent nearly half a billion dollars trying to bolster both the top of their rotation and the depth behind it.

This week, however, in a series sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies that was cemented with a 5-1 loss Thursday, it’s clear the club’s rotation is an area of concern again.

And not with any easy, obvious fixes.

“If you had told us in spring training that we would be where we’re at with the depth of our starting pitching, I would have doubted it,” manager Dave Roberts sighed before Thursday’s game. “But, we are.”

Indeed, the Dodgers pitching staff is facing question marks almost everywhere it looks.

This week, in what was supposed to be a marquee matchup between the National League’s top teams, the Dodgers struggled to piece together production on the mound and at the plate. The pitching problems were magnified by a slumping lineup that scored just five runs in three games at Citizens Bank Park, and an error-prone defense that contributed to several Phillies rallies, including a decisive two-run sixth inning Thursday that started on a fly ball James Outman couldn’t get to in center field.

“They’re clearly a better team than we are right now,” Roberts said.

Added first baseman Freddie Freeman: “We didn’t play very good that series. There’s nothing to spin it any different way.”

In the long term, though, it’s the pitching issues that look toughest to solve.

The Dodgers were unable to call on Glasnow, their lone All-Star arm, after he joined Yamamoto on the injured list Tuesday. They decided they no longer could count on second-year right-hander Bobby Miller, demoting him to triple A on Wednesday after a nine-run clunker in the series opener.

And while rookies Gavin Stone and Landon Knack — who gave up three runs in 4⅓ innings of bulk relief Thursday, the best outing by a Dodgers pitcher this week — kept the team in it against the Phillies’ high-scoring lineup, neither was close to spectacular either, a stark reminder of the sudden lack of an established ace amid all the other key absences.

“I try not to fret too much or worry too much about the guys who can’t help us right now,” Roberts said, referencing a group that includes Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Dustin May and several other injured arms. “Hoping that they’ll be back soon.”

Glasnow is expected to return shortly after next week’s All-Star Game. Beyond him, however, the other injured pitchers offer little assurance of front-line success.

Yamamoto still hasn’t started playing catch, suggesting that he remains a month or more from a comeback.

Buehler is working at a private facility in Florida, trying to find any semblance of consistency after eight rough starts in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Kershaw will resume his minor-league rehab assignment this weekend, but as a 36-year-old veteran who’s coming off a major offseason shoulder injury and hasn’t pitched this season, he’s hardly certain to possess the raw stuff required to succeed in October.

And while Miller does possess that natural talent, highlighted by his triple-digit fastball, he is slated to begin the second half of the season in triple A, aiming to clean up the inconsistencies in his delivery that led to an earned-run average of more than 8.00 in seven starts.

Normally, this is where a contending team would look to the trade deadline for answers and target a front-line arm to bolster its postseason pitching plans.

After all, during the Dodgers’ 22-22 stretch over the last 44 games, their starters have a 4.91 ERA, fifth worst in the majors during that span.

This year, though, the trade market is slim on impact pitchers.

The Dodgers have interest in Garrett Crochet, according to people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly, but the Chicago White Sox left-hander already is nearing an innings limit in his return from Tommy John surgery, meaning it’s unlikely he could take regular turns through the rotation between now and October.

Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers is one potential deadline target having a Cy Young-caliber season. But with 21/2 seasons of club control left, it’s unlikely the Tigers would move him — and certainly not for anything less than a massive prospect haul, the kind the Dodgers typically are wary of offering.

There are cheaper yet still productive options — such as the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, Toronto Blue Jays’ Yusei Kikuchi or White Sox’s Erick Fedde. Depth, however, is not the Dodgers’ biggest need. In the short term, they can rely on young arms such as Stone, Knack and Justin Wrobleski to cover innings and preserve their seven-game NL West lead.

“I just look at it as these guys are getting a good opportunity in a playoff race, in a pennant race,” Roberts said.

The eventual returns of Glasnow, Kershaw, Buehler, Miller and — at some point — Yamamoto should stabilize their depth chart, as well.

Until then, what’s once again missing is a healthy, established, front-of-the-rotation arm — the kind the Dodgers missed sorely against the Phillies and almost certainly will need to key any extended playoff push.

Perhaps Glasnow will return on time and be that pitcher again. Maybe Stone will build off his strong first half and blossom into a postseason weapon. Yamamoto could come back and look like the All-Star-caliber pitcher he was before his injury.

It’s just that none of those outcomes looks inevitable. None of those pitchers can be taken for granted.

Once again, the Dodgers are scrambling to reinforce a rotation they thought they had fixed. And they might have no choice but to cross their fingers, wait on improved health, and hope they have enough talent on the mound to carry them to — and through — October.

This week’s sweep was a reminder that’s no guarantee.