Justin Wrobleski strong in MLB debut, Dodgers lose to Brewers

Justin Wroblewski didn’t suffer much pain in his major league debut on Sunday afternoon.

For his first time on a big league mound, the 23-year-old left-hander showed no signs of nervousness or fear.

Manager Dave Roberts said, “He even said there were some starts in Triple-A that made him feel more nervous than he did today.” “Which you don’t hear very often. But I think that’s what he meant.”

In the Dodgers’ 9–2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium, Wrobleski learned some important lessons.

Twice, he squirted water over the heart of the plate.

And both times, he turned back to see them walk out of the yard, the only blemish on his five-inning, four-run, four-strikeout MLB debut.

“It’s part of the game,” Wrobleski said. “But at the end of the day I can’t get too up or down on anything. It was a wonderful day for me.”

Three weeks ago, Wroblewski was a rising name in the Dodgers minor league system – not yet widely known.

An 11th-round draft pick out of Oklahoma State in 2021, Wrobleski impressed with a 2.90 ERA in High A last season, then went 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 13 Double-A starts this season.

He had been promoted to Triple A just a few weeks earlier, giving up a total of five runs in his first two starts there.

But this week, after the Dodgers decided to give the rest of their rotation an extra day of rest at the end of a six-game homestand, Wrobleski was called upon to fill the gap, becoming the second starting pitcher to debut for the club. It became a possibility. This season (tying with Landon Knack) and eighth overall in the last three seasons.

“I’m really impressed with the way he carried himself today,” Roberts said of Wrobleski, the club’s 13th overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline. “You could see he wasn’t running away from major league hitters. He was going after them and attacking.”

Wroblewski’s only real mistakes came at the end of his outing.

In the fourth inning, he hung a slider that former National League Most Valuable Player Christian Yelich crushed to center field for a two-run home run. In the fifth, Wrobleski was again penalized for catching too much of the plate, throwing a center-cut fastball that was hit by veteran catcher Eric Haase for another two-run shot.

On a day when the Dodgers went one-for-nine with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 men on base – their only run came on a Chris Taylor homer in the sixth inning – it was enough for the Brewers, who scored five late runs. Make it. Dodgers bullpen to avoid weekend sweep at Chavez Ravine.

“He’d love to get (those pitches) back,” Roberts said. “But all things considered, I thought he did a really good job.”

Wroblewski is one of several young arms the Dodgers will rely on for depth in the second half of the season.

Knack currently holds down a rotation spot, and owns an impressive 2.86 ERA through seven starts this season. Two other top prospects, right-handers River Ryan and Kyle Hurt, are also currently in Triple A (though Hurt has recently started with a trainer).

The Dodgers could still use another frontline pitcher to compensate for the loss of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was on an All-Star trajectory before suffering a strained rotator cuff in his shoulder last month.

But between the team’s young pitching pipeline and the expected returns of Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Dustin May later this summer, their need for bottom-of-the-rotation additions by MLB’s July 30 trade deadline may be minimized. Has been done.

Instead, as Sunday’s lackluster offensive performance again showed, the club may need yet another bat more than anything else – especially with Mookie Betts still out due to his broken hand.

“I think we did a good job of trying to deal with it and still win baseball games,” Roberts said. “We won a series there against a good ballclub. But yes, we just have to go out there and bat well. …it’s there. We just have to get hits with runners on base and score more runs.”

clayton kershaw throws sim game

Clayton Kershaw’s recovery from offseason shoulder surgery resumed as the left-hander pitched two innings in a simulated game at Dodger Stadium on Sunday morning.

Kershaw faced live hitting for the first time since reporting soreness in his shoulder following a rehabilitation outing with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga last month.

Kershaw then stopped throwing for about a week, during which he underwent an MRI scan which revealed no new damage to his shoulder, and also received injections to reduce pain.

This week, he started playing catch again. After Sunday’s outing, he should be ready to resume his minor league rehab stint next week as well, though manager Dave Roberts said he doesn’t know when or with what affiliate his next start will be.

“I thought Clayton was good,” Roberts said of Kershaw’s outing on Sunday, in which he faced big league teammates Gavin Lux, James Outman and Cavan Biggio, as well as some minor league hitters. “We accomplished what we wanted.”