Clayton Kershaw may not be happy with Dodgers' plan for his return

PITTSBURGH >> Clayton Kershaw should be happy.

His back injury was less serious than might have been feared when he left his July 23 start. He has returned to health relatively quickly. And his team is so far out front that it can afford to take it slowly with him, giving him a long runway to return to the rotation with bullets saved for October.

Oh, yeah — that last part doesn’t seem to sit well with the Dodgers ace.

“Health-wise, I could have pitched in the big leagues 10 days ago. But that’s not the plan obviously,” Kershaw said Monday after throwing a four-inning simulated game at PNC Park.

His tone made it obvious that “the plan” was not his plan.

“I don’t feel like I missed much time,” he said of the need to build back up slowly. “I kept throwing all the way through. I guess it’s a luxury we have as a team.”

Indeed it is. That’s why Kershaw’s simulated game was followed by a 32-pitch bullpen session by Yu Darvish. The right-hander is taking a 10-day break on the DL because of back spasms that hampered him in his most recent start — and because his starts in August are meaningless for a team with a 20-game lead and big plans for October.

Darvish worked with pitching coach Rick Honeycutt on some mechanical adjustments in his delivery during Monday’s throwing session and reported no further issues with his back. He will throw another bullpen session on Thursday and is then penciled in to rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation on Sunday at home against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Kershaw will take his restraints partially off on Saturday when he is scheduled to make a rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City. But even the prospect of that final step before returning to the majors — most likely during the Dodgers’ series in San Diego Sept. 1-3 — didn’t seem to excite him.

“You can’t simulate a big-league game. You’ve just got to go do it,” he said about testing his readiness to return. “Even a rehab game. You’ve just got to go pitch in the big leagues.”

Kershaw threw 55 pitches Monday to hitters Chase Utley and Kiké Hernandez and hitting coach Turner Ward. He satisfied everyone but himself, calling his pitches and execution “all pretty average.”

“Sim games are really hard,” he said. “You try to create intensity but you can’t. It’s really not a good recipe, but I guess that’s what you have to do.”

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Honeycutt acknowledged that Kershaw was “not perfectly happy with every pitch — at the same time, I’m not sure that’s ever the case” and said the left-hander’s recovery has gone more quickly than anticipated.

“If anything, we could have bumped this (four-inning sim game) up even sooner because he hasn’t lost much arm strength or endurance,” Honeycutt said.

Austin Barnes caught Kershaw during the sim game and said any dissatisfaction on the left-hander’s part was “just Kershaw being the perfectionist he always is.”

“He looked really good,” Barnes said. “Catching his bullpen (session Friday in Detroit), he looked like the same Kersh as always.

“He threw all his pitches (Monday) and looked good. There was no tail-off in his pitches. That’s a good sign.”

Kershaw is scheduled to throw four innings or approximately 60 pitches for the OKC Dodgers on Saturday.

Bellinger break

Rookie Cody Bellinger was not in the starting lineup for the second consecutive day since suffering a mild ankle sprain Saturday in Detroit. Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said Bellinger still has slight swelling in his right ankle and will be held out of the lineup again today.

“With the torque he creates with his swing and the instability created with a sprain, it just doesn’t make sense right now,” Roberts said. “It’s sort of day by day. I don’t see him in the lineup tomorrow (today), and that’s as far as I want to go now.”

Also

The Dodgers will recall right-hander Brock Stewart from Triple-A Oklahoma City to start today in Pittsburgh. Darvish was originally scheduled to start the game before going on the DL.