Daniel Hudson spent a full year rehabilitating from left knee surgery, the Dodgers reliever enduring numerous setbacks before returning last week and experiencing the exhilaration of notching his first save in 392 days on Wednesday night.
Three appearances into an emotional comeback that lifted the spirits — and improved the back-end depth — of a sagging bullpen, Hudson’s season might be over.
Hudson suffered a sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee while pitching out of a bases-loaded jam Wednesday, an injury that will sideline the 36-year-old right-hander for one to two months, if not more.
“My heart breaks for him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Thursday night’s 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in Chavez Ravine. “He was committed to coming back this year. He could have walked away last year. So for it to [possibly] end right now the way it did, it hurts.”
The bullpen shook off the loss of Hudson Thursday night, as Nick Robertson, Brusdar Graterol and Alex Vesia combined for three scoreless innings in relief of Julio Urías, who held the Pirates to two runs and three hits in six innings, striking out eight and walking one, in his second start back from a left-hamstring strain.
Urías might have thrown six shutout innings had Dodgers left fielder David Peralta not misplayed a Jack Suwinski line drive over his head into a double in Pittsburgh’s two-run second.
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer to right field in the first inning, doubled and scored on Max Muncy’s tie-breaking two-run homer to left-center that made it 4-2 in the sixth and followed Mookie Betts’ two-out double in the seventh with an RBI single to left for a 5-2 lead.
The Dodgers (49-38) won three of four games from the Pirates and moved to within a half-game of Arizona in the National League West.
Hudson threw 29 pitches in the ninth inning Wednesday night, the final one a nasty slider that struck out Jack Suwinski to close out a 6-4 Dodgers victory.
But Roberts said Hudson, whom the Dodgers were counting on to bolster a relief corps that entered Thursday with the seventh-worst ERA (4.47) in the majors, injured his push-off knee on his second-to-last pitch.
An MRI test on Thursday confirmed the sprain, which Roberts said was “north of grade 1,” and Hudson was placed on the injured list. Surgery, Roberts said, “is not on the table” at this time.
A grade 1 (mild) MCL tear usually heals within one to three weeks, according to the Cleveland Clinic. A grade 2 (moderate) tear takes four to six weeks, while a grade 3 (severe) tear can take six weeks or more.
“I don’t know the grade of sprain, but it’s going to be a couple months,” Roberts said. “I don’t want to say it’s season-ending, because we’re still holding out hope, but it’s significant.”
Asked how Hudson was able to make his last pitch to Suwinski, Roberts said, “I have no idea … guts … I’m telling you, man, guts.”
Hudson was the team’s top reliever before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in late June 2022, going 2-3 with a 2.22 ERA and five saves in 25 games before suffering his season-ending injury.
He hoped to be ready by opening day this season but was delayed in March and April, his balky knee buckling under the stress of throwing off a mound. He took a cortisone injection in late May, was finally able to begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment on June 6 and joined the Dodgers in Kansas City last Friday.
“It just got to a point where I was like, ‘You know what? I’m ready. I’m done checking boxes here. Let’s just freaking go,’ ” Hudson said last week, acknowledging he would be pitching with discomfort. “I just focused my mind on that, and now I’m here, ready to go.”
Hudson threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts against the Royals that night and added another scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout against the Pirates on Monday night before injuring his other knee Wednesday night.
“It’s difficult because I know the grind and what he’s gone through,” Roberts said of Hudson, who overcame two Tommy John surgeries in his career. “You feel like an outcast when you’re not around, You wonder, ‘Why am I doing this? Is it worth it?’
“And then you finally get back and [experience] the highest of highs of getting a save, but the adrenaline settles in and you realize you’re back on the IL and you’re going to be missing a significant amount of time … I just can’t put into words how frustrating, how disappointing this is for him.”
The Dodgers recalled Robertson and Vesia before Thursday night’s game to replace Hudson and right-hander Yency Almonte, who was placed on the paternity list. Graterol, who has had a sore shoulder, threw in the bullpen on Thursday and was deemed OK.
Struggling right-hander Noah Syndergaard, who was placed on the IL with a 7.16 ERA in early June, was scheduled to throw a three-inning simulated game on Thursday, but the Dodgers pushed back his workout in case they need bullpen coverage against the Angels on Friday and Saturday.
“It’s a crazy scenario, but Noah might be in play,” Roberts said. “You just never know.”
The Dodgers have been pursuing bullpen upgrades, but the injury to Hudson will make an already pressing need before the Aug. 1 trade deadline even more acute.
“I’ve used the phrase kicking tires — we have,” Roberts said of the team’s pursuit of pitching. “Counting on Huddy, and then not to essentially have him for sure, there’s some more questions that need to be answered. I think that adds another layer, for sure.”
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