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Justin Wrobleski‘s struggles continued as the Dodgers’ left-handed starter gave up a pair of two-run home runs in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Milwaukee’s Joey Ortiz hit the first one 373 feet to left field in the second inning, and Wilson Contreras hit the other 389 feet to left-center in the fourth.
Neither Dodgers manager Dave Roberts nor Wrobleski believe the struggles are fatigue-related. However, the first-time All-Star, who gave up four hits through six innings, has pitched a career-high 126⅓ innings this season. He also has yielded 11 home runs in his past four starts.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gives up just four hits over six solid innings as the Dodgers overcome another shaky Edwin Díaz performance to beat Milwaukee 3-1.
“Every year, you want to throw a little bit more, so you can throw a little bit more, right?” Wrobleski said. “If you would’ve told me I would’ve been at this inning count at this point at the start of the year, I would’ve been pretty happy.”
Wrobleski and Roberts considered Saturday’s outing a solid one, sans the 88-mph slider to Ortiz on the right-middle part of the plate.
“I even told him … it was one bad pitch for me, the Ortiz pitch,” Roberts said. “I thought he did a really nice job.”
The Brewers, nonetheless, took advantage. With Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski — the favorite for the NL Cy Young Award — giving up just five hits, the Dodgers struggled against a pitcher they could see again in the postseason.
“I hope that we can give Jacob as much credit and publicity as possible,” Roberts said of Misiorowski, who threw seven 102 mph-plus pitches to start the game. “He’s a great kid, and he’s great for the game. What he did today … you just don’t see it.”
The only time the Dodgers made Misiorowski look vulnerable was in the fifth when Teoscar Hernández, Alex Call and Hunter Feduccia each hit one-out singles to load the bases. But Misiorowski, who leads the majors in ERA (1.75) and strikeouts (210), struck out Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to silence the announced crowd of 47,767.
“We created stress, and we had the guys we wanted up to bat, but Jacob made really good pitches,” Roberts said. “[Against] guys like that, you just don’t have many opportunities, and so when you do … you got to try to find a way to cash in.
“But certainly with that guy, easier said than done.”
The Dodgers scored their only run on an Ohtani triple to right that scored Call from first in the third inning as the Brewers (76-48) made sure the Dodgers (74-50) will not overtake them for best record in the NL this weekend.
