Dodgers’ Brandon McCarthy leaves game because of hip injury
Brandon McCarthy has made three increasingly shaky starts, and his next stop could be the disabled list.
McCarthy left the Dodgers’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday in the second inning, with what the team called stiffness in his right hip.
Bud Norris, who is scheduled to make a rehabilitation start Saturday night for Class A Rancho Cucamonga, could replace McCarthy in the starting rotation
McCarthy’s fastball command was erratic in his previous two starts and almost nonexistent in this one.
He walked home a run in the first inning, when he walked three of the Pirates’ first six batters and hit another. He walked home a run in the second inning, after which Manager Dave Roberts and an athletic trainer visited the mound.
McCarthy was removed from the game. He went 1-2/3 innings, giving up five walks and two hits, and hitting one batter.
McCarthy had walked five in each of his previous two starts, without surviving the fourth inning in either one. In his last three starts, including Saturday, he has thrown 201 pitches, 100 of them balls.
Roberts said before the game that McCarthy had appeared to repair issues with his delivery in two bullpen sessions – one more than usual – since his last start.
“It is important – not only physically, but mentally – for Brandon to go out there and command the fastball,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers signed McCarthy, 33, to a four-year, $48-million contract before the 2015 season. He made four starts last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He has made eight starts this season.
A stint on the disabled list would be the 14th of his career. He never has been put on the disabled list because of a hip injury.
Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin
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