The Dodgers initiated Walker Buehler from the injured list to begin Wednesday night against the Diamondbacks, after the right-hander missed a beginning with a rankle on his right index finger.
Buehler was scratched from his beginning last Thursday in San Francisco with said rankle, and had the option to throw a 34-pitch bullpen session throughout the end of the week with his finger revealed, and emerged from that unscathed.
“It’s just one of those things that the skin starts to kind of come apart, or you get that blister and once it gets to the sensitive part, then it could kind of get into a bad place,” manager Dave Roberts said on a conference call Tuesday. “We wanted to combat that, and right now, it’s kind of back to normal. We’re confident that, any pitch that he throws and going deep into a game, It shouldn’t be compromised.”
To make list room, the Dodgers optioned Scott Alexander, who has battled of late. The left-hander entered the ninth inning Tuesday with a 6-1 lead, yet strolled two hitters and gave up a two-run home run, pitching into a save circumstance for Kenley Jansen, who recorded the final out.
In his last eight outings, Alexander walked seven in seven innings, permitting 14 of his 34 batters looked to come to (a .412 on-base percentage), with just two strikeouts. Alexander leads the Dodgers bullpen with nine walks, in spite of being eighth among relievers in innings pitched.
Alexander had the third-highest average leverage index on the team, however that is floated to some degree by him contributing two of the Dodgers’ three extra-inning games this season.
He despite everything was successful on occasion, holding left-handers to only 1-for-18 (.056) against him. In any case, with the three-hitter least as a result this season, Alexander has confronted right-handed batters more times (30 PA) than left (22 PA), and righties have hit .333/.448/.458 against him.
