Shortly after Dodgers right-hander Brandon McCarthy made his first pitch at Coors Field on August 2, it began to rain. In fact, it rained so hard that 11 pitches into the game home plate umpire Mike Everitt called for a rain delay that lasted a mere 38 minutes; not uncommon for Denver this time of the year. But it’s what happened during those 11 pitches that is cause for concern for the Dodgers and their fans.

Although five of those 11 pitches were for strikes and McCarthy, in fact, struck out Rockies center fielder and leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon on five pitches, he nearly hit Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu on an inside fastball and threw two pitches that missed home plate by feet, not inches, that went completely to the backstop. McCarthy ended up walking LeMahieu on six pitches and it was then that Everitt called for the rain delay.

As expected and with good cause, nearly everyone blamed McCarthy’s extreme wildness on the sudden passing rain squall; everyone except those who had been closely monitoring the 6′ 7″- 235-pound right-hander during his four rehabilitation starts following his April 30, 2015 Tommy John surgery. Three of those four rehab starts were with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, of which I attended his first.

McCarthy was very sharp in his first rehab start with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on June 11.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although one rehab start is not a fair sample size in which to evaluate one’s progress, especially the first one, but I was overwhelmed by McCarthy’s command and control. And even though he allowed one run on one hit (a home run) and walked a batter in his two innings of work, he was consistently right around the strike zone, with 11 of his 20 pitches being strikes and none resembling those in Colorado. But here again, even I gave McCarthy the benefit of the doubt that his extreme wildness at Coors Field on August 2 was due to the rain … sort of.

However, and this is an enormous however, you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day than was Sunday, August 7 at Dodger Stadium when McCarthy made his next start against the powerful Boston Red Sox with a rare 4:10 pm PT start time. Not only was there not a cloud in the sky, the temperature at first-pitch was a very comfortable 79 degrees; pure Southern California gold.

Sure enough, in the first inning McCarthy again uncorked five pitches that went complete to the backstop after missing the plate by several feet; one with a runner on second base who easily advanced to third base and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly. And though McCarthy would only be charged with that one wild pitch on the day, he would end up sending eight total pitches to the backstop. He also hit a batter before finally being pulled from the game after only 3.2 innings and only 65 pitches, of which 31 were strikes.

McCarthy didn’t just miss the strike zone, he missed it by several feet on Sunday … eight times.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

McCarthy ended up allowing two earned runs on two hits with one walk, one hit batsman and zero strikeouts. Fortunately for the soft-spoken and brutally honest right-hander, his defense provided him with two huge inning-ending double plays and his offense cranked out eight runs on nine hits – including three solo home runs – in the eventual 8-5 Dodgers win to take him off the hook from suffering what would have been his third consecutive loss in his five total starts (he won the first two).

“Physically, I feel fine. I don’t know what the hell is going on,” McCarthy told reporters after his second consecutive short outing. “This is going to be the least amount of answers you can possibly give in an interview because I just don’t really have them right now. Four-seamer, I just can’t feel what’s happening and I don’t know what the hell this is. I’ve never had it before.”

Am I the only one who believes that there may be something wrong with Brandon McCarthy and that it might be a good idea for the Dodgers to shut him down before he causes further damage to his surgically-repaired right elbow? Apparently Dodgers manager Dave Roberts doesn’t.

“Brandon physically is fine. I think just mechanically he’s out of whack,” Roberts said after the game. “He had feel for the breaking ball today but that four-seam fastball really had no command of or feel, he was just kind of chucking it up there … similar in Denver. I know he and Honey[cutt] are going to get back and work through some things. So right now, as I understand it, he’s healthy, so we expect him to make that start on Saturday [August 13 in Pittsburgh].”

While it is certainly understandable and even commendable for a manager to speak confidently about his players to the media, Brandon McCarthy is clearly not healthy. In fact, he was observed many times throughout his brief starts in Denver and at Dodger Stadium shaking his right arm and hand as if trying to magically shake the bugs out, especially after sending pitches to the backstop. And though it is great that the extremely likable right-hander has a feel for his breaking ball which has been very good all along, it is a pitcher’s fastball – especially a four-seam fastball – that sets up every other pitch in their arsenal.

By no means am I wishing anything bad on McCarthy but the cold hard truth is that he is broken and I (unfortunately) believe that a new MRI would confirm that he is indeed not healthy. And even if there is no new damage to his right elbow, the Dodgers would be well advised to shut him down for a while and begin making contingency plans for his scheduled start on August 13; especially with the Dodgers on the cusp of catching the Giants in the NL West standings.