‘Lesson learned,’ Anthony Banda could return to Dodgers soon

LOS ANGELES – Anthony Banda knows what you were thinking. He was thinking it, too.

“Idiot.”

For days after he fractured a bone in his pitching hand in a “freak accident” – not punching a wall as so many assumed, he clarified – the 31-year-old left-hander was beating himself up for his poor judgment in a moment of frustration.

“I gave up a couple runs,” Banda recalled of the Sept. 9 game against the Chicago Cubs. “I went down into the dugout bathroom and there’s a paper-towel dispenser. I didn’t punch it straight on. I hit it on the side of the fist. I yelled some profanity, hit that. It fell off. I picked it up, put it back then I walked out to the dugout. Next thing I know I have a lump on the side of my hand and I’m, ‘What’s going on?’

“It was kind of dumb. It was idiotic to hit my pitching hand any type of way. … I didn’t punch anything. It was one of those things where I said, ‘Dang it’ or another profanity and hit it with the side of my hand.”

The lump on the side of his hand was the sign of a fracture in a small bone in that hand, the one Banda uses to make a living. He saw the chance to pitch in the postseason – the chance to be brought back by the Dodgers next season after pitching for eight teams in eight years as a big-leaguer – disappearing.

“I just said, ‘Oh, (expletive) – there goes everything,’” Banda said of his reaction when he was told he had fractured his hand. “At the same time, I was not in pain – how bad could it be? It was my first broken bone in my entire life. I’ve never had one so I didn’t know what to expect.

“Obviously it was foolish. It’s a lesson learned. I just don’t think it was very smart of me to do something like that. Granted there is a big element of frustration. You’re a competitor and you want to compete and do your job and when you feel like you didn’t do your job there’s some frustration that comes with that. It was something that had been building over a period of time. It finally tipped over and I expressed it and I expressed it the wrong way and it cost me.”

It won’t cost him as much as he feared. Banda said within “four or five days” of the injury, the swelling had dissipated and he was able to start throwing a baseball.

That progressed to throwing a 30-pitch bullpen session at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

“We’ve basically checked every box already,” he said. “Yesterday was a bullpen, 30 pitches, uses of everything. Slider was great. Changeup was great. Two-seamer was good. I didn’t lose any spin efficiency. I didn’t lose any spin (rate). If anything my slider was bigger. The big thing was feeling out the changeup in the sense of, ‘Is it going to bother me?’ There was no discomfort whatsoever.”

The down time might actually be a “blessing in disguise” people have told him, Banda said. Acquired from the Cleveland Guardians for cash considerations on May 17, Banda quickly became one of the most frequently used relievers in the Dodgers’ bullpen. His 46 appearances and 47 ⅓ innings are career-highs.

Banda has apologized to his bullpen-mates and will throw to hitters in a live batting practice session on Monday. He could be activated from the Injured List by the end of the week.

“It’s a huge relief,” he said. “I was able to sleep at night. I was able to smile and enjoy myself more. Not that I’m happy with the position I’m in. But I’ve made that bed, I’ve laid in it, I’ve moved on. I didn’t expect any sympathy from anybody. I don’t want that.”

SHOWDOWN SERIES

With the National League West still not clinched, the Dodgers will host the second-place San Diego Padres for three games beginning Tuesday. They could clinch the division during that series but the Padres have won seven of 10 matchups with the Dodgers this season.

The Dodgers went into Sunday’s game having split their previous dozen games overall while the Padres have stayed close by winning seven of their past eight games through Saturday. Playing their pursuers head-to-head this week should get the Dodgers playing with more “edge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think that it’s pretty easy to see that when we’ve played them – I think 10 times this year – they’ve come out more intense than we did. That’s got to change. I expect it to change. So playing those games in certainly very, very meaningful games will bring out the best in us.

“I think the chaser always seems like they have a little more incentive. I think that’s part of it. But the talent being equal, there’s no reason our fight, intensity, focus shouldn’t match theirs or best theirs.”

CAT READY

Right-hander Tony Gonsolin completed his minor-league injury-rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday by pitching three innings and retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced.

Roberts said Gonsolin will throw a bullpen session on Monday or Tuesday then could be available for the Dodgers’ season-ending series in Colorado next weekend.

But Roberts said Gonsolin does not have to pitch during that final series of the regular season in order to be considered for the postseason roster.

ALSO

Max Muncy was scratched from Sunday’s lineup after feeling “sore” from diving for a ball during Saturday’s game. Roberts said he expects Muncy to be back in the lineup Tuesday.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers are off Monday.