Sometimes Nolan Long stares at the Dodgers jersey hanging in his locker.

He almost can't believe he's playing professional baseball for the Los Angeles organization.

"It's pretty awesome," Long said. "Sometimes I look at my jersey in the locker with my name on the top and the Dodgers logo next to it. It's almost not real. ... I'm not finished working, not even in the slightest bit. But sometimes I've got to stop and think this is my job now. It's kind of crazy."

A former Waterford High School standout, Long might feel like a recent draft pick, but he hasn't pitched like one in the Arizona League this summer.

He's riding an early wave of success.

On Thursday night, he extended his impressive streak of scoreless appearances to nine straight. He threw five shutout innings, allowing two hits while striking out seven and walking one. He earned the win in an 8-4 victory over the Athletics.

Long improved his record to 4-1 and lowered his earned run average to 0.93 in 10 appearances, including his only two starts in his last two games.

"All in all, I felt great," Long said. "... Honestly, the wins really don't mean much here. It's what you do — repetitions, if you're throwing first pitch strikes. It's a lot different atmosphere than college where winning is everything. Here it is developing players to advance up to the next level and to eventually play in the major leagues."

A 16th-round pick in the 2015 draft, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound right-hander had a bumpy professional debut on July 8 against the Indians. Coming out of the bullpen in the seventh, he failed to finish the inning, registering just two outs while giving up three hits and two runs.

He battled a case of the jitters.

"It was nerves and just leaving the ball up a little," Long said. "Just some simple mistakes that I wouldn't normally make. ... It was frustrating knowing I was better than that. But after that, it was like, 'that's behind me; I'm going to use that as motivation for my next outing.' And It worked."

Since then, he's been dominant, allowing seven hits with eight walks and 22 strikeouts in 18.2 scoreless innings.

Long credits pitching coach Greg Sabat's advice for his rapid progress. After his rocky first start, Sabat made a slight change in Long's delivery that worked wonders.

"My landing foot wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing," Long said. "... I was landing on my toe, which apparently is a no-no. I worked with repetitions on landing more on my heel to the ball of my foot. That keeps me more balanced as my delivery goes to the plate. It's helped a lot with my location and even my velocity. It's been consistently up higher than it was in college. My stride is longer because of that.

"It's just little things like that that they can pick up that I really didn't have in high school or college. These guys, it's their job. They have everything down to a science."

Long also is adjusting well to life in the minor leagues. He's living in a hotel just 10 minutes from the Dodgers complex in Glendale.

He's also grown accustomed to the blazing Arizona heat.

"It's like 110 every day," Long said. "Once you get used to it, it's not bad for pitching because you never really have to warm up much because the heat is on your side. That's the only thing I had to get used to. Other than that, it's still the same game."

One of the biggest highlights of his young professional baseball career came during his post-draft contract negotiations. He was informed that Magic Johnson would be calling him.

Still, nothing can really prepare you for talking to a sports legend.

"Honestly, I made the decision prior to that phone call I was going to sign," Long said. "It was just a recruitment that just sealed the deal to have him call me. Having a basketball background, that's unbelievable."

The conversation eventually turned to basketball; Long played basketball at Waterford and Wagner.

"Right away, he called me by my first name," Long said. "(He said,) 'Nolan, what's up big man?' It was crazy. We just talked basketball right off the jump. That was really cool. He even said, 'Man, you're 6-10 and I'm 6-9. I'll be the point guard and we can run 2-on-2 and we can run through the whole Dodgers organization.' I was like, 'I'm down for that any day of the week.'

"That was the greatest phone call that I've ever gotten."

Basketball is no longer in the picture for Long, who's focusing going as far as he can with baseball. His  rookie league season ends next weekend. He's unsure of his next stop.

Long isn't looking too far ahead right now.

"I'm still kind of just trying to get guys out," Long said. "That's all I'm trying to do."

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe