Sheehan (10 K's) earns spot in Dodgers' rotation as LA wins 5th straight

LOS ANGELES -- With the Dodgers' rotation depth wearing thin, Emmet Sheehan made a successful case to extend his stay in the big leagues.

In his first start for L.A. since August, Sheehan tied his career high with 10 strikeouts across 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball against the Reds on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. He was the pitcher of record in the Dodgers' series-opening 6-3 victory, their fifth straight win.

"I’ve been optioned before," Sheehan said. "It’s always, 'See what we can do down there, and see what we can do to bring it back up here.' I think tonight was a good step in the right direction to see we brought it back up here."

Manager Dave Roberts said Sheehan would remain in the Dodgers' rotation. His next start is lined up for Sunday in Miami.

Before Sheehan was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City, L.A. had only four fully built-up starting pitchers on the active roster: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the projected members of their postseason rotation.

Having those four arms healthy is key for the Dodgers, but with Roki Sasaki and Eric Lauer on the IL -- and Shohei Ohtani unlikely to pitch again this season -- they have a clear need at the back end of their rotation in order to get through the final month of the regular season.

Sheehan began the season in the Dodgers' rotation, going 4-8 with a 5.29 ERA in 20 starts while dealing with persistent delivery issues that made it difficult to maintain the quality of his stuff over the course of an outing. He was optioned to Triple-A on Aug. 3 and went on to record a 1.50 ERA (three earned runs in 18 innings) in four starts with Oklahoma City.

For Sheehan, getting results in Triple-A was one thing. Seeing how his stuff played against a big league lineup was another.

"It was definitely important to see how it played against a lineup like that," Sheehan said. "I felt good with the execution. Just try to keep it going."

On Monday, Sheehan surrendered a solo homer to his second batter, Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, but settled in to retire 14 in a row. He recorded two outs in the sixth inning but loaded the bases on two hits and a walk before being lifted in favor of southpaw Alex Vesia, who stranded all three runners.

By that point, the Dodgers' bats had broken through after being held hitless through four innings by the Reds' Chase Burns-Brandon Williamson piggyback. They gave Sheehan a lead to work with when Miguel Rojas reached on an error that brought home two runs in the fifth inning. Teoscar Hernández padded the score with a three-run blast off Williamson in the sixth, and Will Smith tacked on another run on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eighth.

The Dodgers ended the night with just three hits, but they still managed to get the job done. And it started with Sheehan keeping them in the game.

"Good to get him back here, throwing the baseball like he did tonight," Roberts said. "We didn’t throw out a bunch of hits, but a lot of traffic. … Just a clean ballgame."