LOS ANGELES — Only the body part seems to change.

Tyler Glasnow missed time with a lower back injury last year, then had his season end early with a sprained elbow. This season, he came out of one start in Philadelphia when rainy weather and sloppy mound conditions unsettled him. Two starts later, it was leg cramps that ended Glasnow’s day early.

Sunday, Glasnow came out to warm up for his second inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates. A familiar scene followed – Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a trainer came out to check on Glasnow, who quickly exited.

This time, the issue was discomfort in his pitching shoulder.

Potentially facing another hole in their starting rotation – already missing Blake Snell and awaiting the returns of Tony Gonsolin (this week), Clayton Kershaw (next month) and Shohei Ohtani (someday) – the Dodgers forged on, getting emergency service from Ben Casparius and ample offense to beat the Pirates, 9-2.

Glasnow said the shoulder pain could be a byproduct of the changes he has made this season – in his workout routine as well as his mechanics – in an effort to keep his elbow healthy.

“I’m just obsessed with trying to figure out what’s going on. And it’s been like this for a few years, and I’m trying to find a way to stay healthy, and I’ll try to do whatever,” he said Sunday. “I just don’t really have an answer right now, and I think that’s the most frustrating thing. It’s not a lack of trying. It’s just kind of just getting exhausting at this point. I know it’s probably exhausting for a lot of people, for me especially. … I feel bad for my teammates. I feel bad for people watching. It’s just … a whole very frustrating situation for me. It’s hard.

“I think it’s just been the constant working through. It’s hard to go out there and not think of stuff. I think making changes, there’s been times where it felt really good, and then it’s just, like, maybe something feels weird, subconsciously something changes, or I lower something. I’m not trying to think about it. It’s that fine line between working on it when you have to, and then going into the game. And then just something, I don’t know what it is, just not syncing up, and then stuff just isn’t feeling good.”

Before the game Sunday, Roberts said Glasnow had received fluids intravenously Saturday in hopes of preventing dehydration and a repeat of the cramps that caused him to leave his start in Texas last weekend. He wasn’t around long enough to cramp up.

Glasnow walked the first batter he faced Sunday and gave up back-to-back home runs to Andrew McCutchen and Emmanuel Valdez but got through the first inning with no apparent problems. During his warmups for the second inning, however, he said something felt like it “grabbed” in his shoulder and he could be seen shaking his right arm, prompting the visit from Roberts and a trainer and Glasnow’s removal from the game.

“I guess it’s just that extension, trying to throw, something grabbed,” he said. “Just making a lot of changes, trying to figure out a way to stay healthy, I think some of the changes led to other things kind of taking over, and I’m just at this point, I’m just trying to figure out what to do. It’s just extremely frustrating.”

The Dodgers were well aware of Glasnow’s injury history and lack of reliability when they acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays before last season. They signed him to a five-year, $136.6 million contract extension believing that Tommy John surgery in August 2021 had addressed the problem and would usher in a healthy stretch in Glasnow’s career. But the injuries have continued.

“With Tyler it’s hard because the not feeling good, the past injuries, how his body is not synced up, the mechanics of it – there’s a lot of different pieces that you’re trying to suss out to put him in the right mental place to perform,” Roberts said. “We haven’t got there. We’re not there. So I don’t know the solution right now.”

Roberts said the shoulder issue is “probably not” a long-term concern. But Glasnow is likely headed to the Injured List in the short term.

“We’ve got to get him to a place where we feel, he feels that when he takes the mound he can go out there and be the guy that he’s capable of being,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers are already planning a bullpen game on Tuesday (Snell’s vacant spot in the rotation) with Gonsolin returning from the IL on Thursday. With fewer off days in May, however, the Dodgers could turn to Casparius after his performance on Sunday.

“It’s a thought,” Roberts said. “He gave us four innings today. He’s unflappable. He flooded the strike zone. And he saved our tails today.”

The Dodgers erased the Pirates’ 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back.

Freddie Freeman drove in the first run with a single, and another scored on a pair of errors by Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Andy Pages drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single, the first of his four hits in the game.

Kiké Hernandez walked to start the second inning, went to third on a double by Shohei Ohtani and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts. The Dodgers pulled away in the fifth inning with a solo home run from Teoscar Hernandez – the 200th home run of his career – and a two-run home run from Pages, who went a torrid 10 for 12 in the weekend series against the Pirates.

Casparius was the first responder, called in to replace Glasnow on short notice. He was outstanding, retiring 11 of the 13 batters he faced and striking out five in his 3⅔ innings.

“I think it was just keep everything simple,” Casparius said. “Obviously, not a lot of time to warm up. But our game reports are good. I knew what I needed to do to attack those guys and just go out there and just kind of clear my mind and go out and compete.”

Since taking a pounding in the Dodgers’ 16-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs two weeks ago, Casparius has allowed just one run on five hits in 11 innings over four appearances (including a start in last week’s bullpen game).

Casparius, Alex Vesia, Luis Garcia and Yoendrys Gomez (recently acquired off waivers from the New York Yankees) combined on eight scoreless innings in Glasnow’s wake.

“It is what it is,” Roberts said of the recurring theme of pitching injuries over the past few seasons. “Guys are picking each other up. We’ve got a lot of good arms, a lot of talent and at the end of the day we’re winning a lot of baseball games, more than we’re losing.

“It’s not something we haven’t experienced before. So, yeah, we’re going to be fine. I think we’re all just frustrated but we still won a series.”

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