LOS ANGELES — Take away two pitches and Justin Wrobleski’s major league debut would have been an unquestioned success.
Even with two balls left over the plate that were tagged for two two-run homers in a 9-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers believe they have something in Wrobleski.
“You look at the result, five innings and four runs, but for me, it was a very, very positive outing, and we’re going to see more of him soon,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Wrobleski, an 11th-round draft pick out of Oklahoma State in 2021, didn’t show any nerves in his first game at this level. Roberts said the 23-year-old admitted being more nervous during his time at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he made two starts before being brought up.
With his parents in the stands, Wrobleski did his best to take in the enormity of the moment, admiring the multiple decks of Dodger Stadium behind home plate.
But when the game started, he tried to treat it like any other.
“This point, like you’re already here, like let’s just do it,” Wrobleski said. “I felt pretty comfortable out there. I thought I was gonna be pretty nervous, but I don’t know, like any other game. Felt normal, felt like I belong, so it was a lot of fun.”
And like any other game, Wrobleski got a reminder that good hitters will punish bad pitches. In the fourth inning, he left a slider for All-Star Christian Yelich, who clobbered it 418 feet into the netting in deep center field to put the Brewers ahead 2-0.
It was the sixth career homer at Dodger Stadium for the former Westlake High standout.
“Kind of hung a slider there, and he got it, so that’s part of the game,” Wrobleski said. “End of the day, I can’t be too up and down.”
Wrobleski (0-1) was caught out again in the fifth when Eric Haase snuck a 95-mile-per-hour fastball just over the wall in right and doubled the deficit.
Those two pitches spoiled what was otherwise a promising start for Wrobleski, who ended up allowing five hits and two walks while striking out four. Wrobleski got Jackson Chourio to fly out on his first major league pitch, and he picked up his first career strikeout off Willy Adames to start the second.
“I’m really, really impressed with the way he carries himself, the way he cared himself today,” Roberts said. “I know his stuff plays here. … The Haase at-bat, I think he just left a fastball up and out over. I know he would love to have it back. But all things taken into consideration, I thought he did a really nice job.”
Roberts said Wrobleski will be sent back to the minors, allowing another reliever to be called up for their six-game road trip before the All-Star break, but the 6-foot-5, 215-pound left-hander from Austin, Texas will be back.
“You could just see he wasn’t running from major league hitters,” Roberts said. “He was going after them, attacking. He used his entire pitch mix. I liked that there are some things he can do to get lefties out different ways, right-handers out different ways.”
The Dodgers will hope to see their bats come alive long before Wrobleski rejoins the big club.
They squandered runners in scoring position in the third, fourth and fifth innings, with Andy Pages flying out when the bases were loaded in the third.
“Pages got into a good count, just missing a 3-1 fastball with the bases loaded,” Roberts said. “You know, we just couldn’t muster anything. … We just couldn’t get that hit to put up some runs.”
Chris Taylor tried to get the Dodgers back into it with a thumping two-run shot of his own in the sixth. It marked his sixth extra-base hit in 128 at-bats this season.
However, whatever momentum Taylor’s third homer might have generated was quickly erased when Ryan Yarbrough gave up a solo blast to Blake Perkins leading off the seventh.
The Brewers picked up two more runs off Yarbrough in the eighth and another two off Anthony Banda in the ninth.
Shohei Ohtani stole a pair of bases. With 28 home runs and 20 stolen bases, he joins Davey Lopes (1979) and Matt Kemp (2011) as the only Dodgers player to reach the 20-20 mark before the All-Star break.
