To make room for Little, however, the Dodgers sent right-hander Emmet Sheehan to Triple-A and moved right-hander Tony Gonsolin to the 60-day injured list.
Sheehan was activated from the IL and made his return from Tommy John surgery by pitching four innings in Wednesday night’s victory over the San Diego Padres. Sheehan pitched well, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out six.
“It was more of kind of deciding, essentially between Wrobo (Justin Wrobleski) and Emmet and you’re talking about going into Denver and altitude and kind of just making sure the ’pen is in a good spot, protecting your downside,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Wro has a lot more innings and pitches available versus a guy that’s got one outing coming back from a rehab outing.
“In totality, it was the prudent thing to do, but Emmet (will) be back soon.”
Gonsolin made his return from Tommy John surgery in late April and went 3-2 with a 5.00 ERA in seven starts before going back on the IL two weeks ago with elbow pain. Gonsolin underwent an MRI which showed the ulnar collateral ligament (the ligament repaired by Tommy John surgery) intact.
The Dodgers have not offered any specifics about Gonsolin’s injury beyond that. But he has not begun a throwing program since going on the Injured List. He will not be eligible to return until August now.
“I don’t know when his time of return is, but I think that just kind of his history and not picking up the baseball and the progression to get him back, kind of roster, 40-man management – there’s just not really much margin or expectation for him to be back before that,” Roberts said.
This is the first big-league callup for the 27-year-old Little. A fifth-round draft pick out of Stanford in 2019, Little was 3-2 with a 2.20 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 32⅔ innings over 26 appearances in Triple-A this year.
He made his major-league debut Thursday, pitching the final two innings of a 5-3 loss to the San Diego Padres.
TAKE TWO
Shohei Ohtani will make his second start as a pitcher Sunday against the Washington Nationals. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to start Friday with Dustin May on Saturday.
Ohtani made his first pitching appearance since August 2023 when he pitched the first inning against the San Diego Padres on Monday. The two-way star threw 28 pitches in all and gave up a run on two hits in his inning.
After the game, Ohtani said he expected to pitch once a week and pitch longer each outing. The Dodgers are off Monday and play at Coors Field beginning Tuesday.
Roberts said Ohtani would “not necessarily” pitch more than one inning, preferring to leave it “open-ended” based on pitch count and how his first inning proceeds. Right-hander Ben Casparius would “most likely” follow Ohtani and pitch multiple innings on Sunday as he did in Ohtani’s first outing.
ALSO
With Wednesday night’s sellout crowd, the Dodgers passed the 2 million mark in attendance in just 40 home games this season. It is the fastest the Dodgers have surpassed two million in attendance in franchise history.
Last season, it took 42 games and in 2019, when the Dodgers set their all-time season attendance mark of 3,974,309, it took 43 games.
