At 7:10pm Friday night at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers starter Scott Kazmir hiked up his right leg, uncorked his body, and delivered a pitch to Yasmani Grandal. And then he turned around and waited, and eventually repeated the exercise. His warmup sessions, already extended earlier this season because of chronic first-inning struggles, were further lengthened because of his team’s hour-long pregame ceremony honouring Vin Scully.
The game’s start was estimated for 7:20pm, but finally at 7:46pm, Kazmir did it for real. Reality, for him, did not last very long. In his return to the mound following a month away, the left-hander exited after one scoreless inning because of what the team termed right intercostal spasms, an apparent aggravation of his previous symptoms.
For the Dodgers, reality pushed them within one night of clinching their fourth consecutive National League West title, if Clayton Kershaw wins his Saturday start and San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner loses his. On Friday, they beat Colorado, 5-2, and halved their magic number to two.
Rockies leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon slapped Kazmir’s sixth pitch into right field for a single. With one out, Nolan Arenado tapped a cutter back up the middle. Kazmir picked it up and sought the double play, but threw low to Chase Utley at second base, and Utley’s throw over to first was even worse.
Arenado took second, and then tried to get home when Carlos Gonzalez subsequently singled to left field. Andrew Toles delivered a rapid, on-target throw home, clocked at 97.6 mph, to easily prevent him from scoring.
When Kazmir returned to the Dodgers’ dugout, he was examined by team trainers and immediately removed from the game.

Consecutive pitches
In the bottom half of the first, Corey Seager worked an eight-pitch walk. Justin Turner fouled off four consecutive pitches, then took Colorado starter Jon Gray’s 97-mph fastball off his body and walked to first. While starter-turned-long-reliever Ross Stripling warmed in the bullpen, Adrian Gonzalez walked, and Grandal blooped a single into short right field. Two runs scored.
The Dodgers did not put another baseball into play until the third inning, when Turner led off with a groundout to third. Gray recorded his first six outs on strikeouts, but used far too many pitches and tired by the fourth inning, at which point Joc Pederson and Andre Ethier launched back-to-back solo homers on fastballs.
Stripling set down the Rockies in order in the second. In the third, the Rockies strung together two singles and a sacrifice bunt. DJ LeMahieu’s flare to right would have scored at least one run, but Josh Reddick lunged forward and caught it. With two outs, Stripling battled Arenado, the National League leader in home runs.
When the count reached 3-and-2, Stripling tried a slider on the outside corner, where the Dodgers have focused on pitching Arenado this series. He fouled it off. Then Stripling landed a curveball at the base of the strike zone, and Arenado struck out swinging to end the threat.
Stripling forged on, finishing the fourth inning, before Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts pieced together the rest of the required relief. Arenado launched a solo shot off Josh Fields in the sixth for Colorado’s first run, and Fields soon yielded another run, unearned because of a Seager error.
Kazmir, 32, spent much of this season as one of the Dodgers’ few reliable starting options. He was rarely spectacular, but he was steady. He’d work into the sixth inning, sometimes finish it, and give up about three runs.
He’d strike out a lot of hitters and yield a lot of homers.
But, last month, pain began to overwhelm him, and he exited an Aug 22 start after 22/3 innings, citing back and neck issues before and during the game.
He made a minor league rehab start two weeks later but again exited early and was diagnosed with thoracic spine inflammation. Roberts was admittedly unsure he’d pitch again in 2016. Either way, the Dodgers will owe Kazmir $32 million over the next two seasons unless he opts out of his contract, a possibility that seems unlikely.
The Dodgers did not turn to him out of current desperation, but rather out of luxury, afforded by their position in the standings. They entered Friday six games up on San Francisco and pushing to halve their magic number of four. And perhaps some future desperation: They need a fourth playoff starter and lack an obvious candidate.
Before the game, Roberts said he was uncertain how many innings Kazmir might be able to handle.
“As far as a buildup,” Roberts said, “he hasn’t really had it.”