Instead, in a 6-3 Dodgers win over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field, it was practically every time the ball burst from Tyler Glasnow’s right hand.
In an overpowering performance against an overmatched Twins lineup, Glasnow rode a mid-90s heater and devastating combination of breaking pitches to his best start yet as a Dodger, matching a career-high with 14 strikeouts in a stunningly scoreless seven-inning gem.
When the Dodgers traded for, then immediately struck a $136.5-million extension with, Glasnow this offseason, they did so with nights like Tuesday in mind.
Too often in recent seasons, amid injuries to Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and other talented members of the Dodgers’ pitching staff, the team lacked a clear front-line weapon atop its rotation. It went into this last offseason determined to fill the void.
Despite his own checkered history health-wise, the 30-year-old Glasnow was their preferred solution.
“Betting on Tyler, the person and competitor, we felt very good about it,” general manager Brandon Gomes said after the Dodgers acquired the right-hander from the Tampa Bay Rays in December.
Four months later, the Dodgers (10-4) named Glasnow their opening-day starter. He began his season with three decent performances, going 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA.
But, going into his matchup with the offensively slumping Twins, both Glasnow and the Dodgers were expecting more dominance from the veteran.
“He’s obviously a really talented pitcher, really competing well,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame. “I think that what we haven’t seen is, from start to finish, that he’s been synced up with his delivery.”
Tuesday night, they finally did.
Glasnow’s game started — fittingly — with a strikeout, dotting a 96.7-mph fastball on the inside corner to Edouard Julien. Each of his next five strikeouts also came via the heater, like the elevated four-seamer he blew past Byron Buxton in the second, or an off-the-plate bullet Carlos Correa helplessly waved at in the fifth.
If not for a line-drive double by rookie Austin Martin in the bottom of the third, which grazed off the glove of a diving James Outman in center field, Glasnow might have been working on a no-hit bid.
Still, facing a Twins lineup that entered the night with an MLB-worst .175 batting average, the stuff the tall, lanky Santa Clarita native was throwing looked unhittable all the same.
The second and third times through the order, Glasnow mixed in more of his off-speed pitches.
Alex Kirilloff and Buxton both fanned on sliders in back-to-back at-bats during the fourth inning — one of six consecutive strikeouts Glasnow racked up in the middle of his outing.
Jose Miranda and Matt Wallner went down on curveballs in the fifth.
In a closer game, or a different era of pitcher workload management, Glasnow might have had the chance to go the distance.
By the end of the seventh inning, which concluded on punchouts of Miranda and Wallner again, giving Glasnow his third career game of 14 strikeouts, he had thrown only 88 pitches.
The Dodgers, however, didn’t acquire Glasnow so he could pitch nine innings in an early-April blowout. They envision him anchoring their pitching staff through a deep October run.
So, after seeing Glasnow flash every tantalizing option in his highly touted tool kit, Roberts let his new ace relax for the night’s final couple of innings.
Even without going the full nine frames, he’d already pitched a game of complete dominance.