The Dodgers didn’t hit a home run on Sunday, but didn’t need to. They scraped together just enough offense to back a stingy Justin Wrobleski, who extended his April success into May in a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
That snapped a four-game losing streak for the Dodgers, their longest of the season.
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Wrobleski allowed 11 hard-hit balls — defined by Baseball Savant as any batted ball with an exit velocity of at least 95 mph — and induced only four swinging strikes among his 83 pitches. He didn’t strike anybody out. But Wrobleski tiptoed through the minefield unscathed with six more scoreless innings.
The left-hander allowed six singles and a walk, but they were aligned in advantageous fashion, in that four of the hits and the lone walk came with two outs, with less time in each of those innings to cash them in.
It’s the first time a Dodgers starter finished with at least six scoreless innings and no strikeouts since Mike Morgan pitched a shutout to beat the San Diego Padres on April 19, 1991. Joe Davis during the SportsNet LA broadcast also mentioned that the last time a Dodgers pitcher got through six innings (not the finished line) with no strikeouts was Jamie Arnold on May 5, 1999 in Montreal against the Expos.
Arnold remained in that game and got two strikeouts in the seventh inning. Wrobleski’s day was done after six innings on Sunday, adding yet another solid start to his resumé.
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Since joining the rotation a month ago, Wrobleski has 13 total strikeouts and nine walks in five starts, but has allowed only two runs in 31 innings. And five wins.
“There’s the thought — and with good reason — that it’s unsustainable to have this much contact and these good of numbers,” Davis said on the broadcast in the sixth inning. “But you could say that after one start of there being a ton of contact and a bunch of zeroes. You wait for that shoe to drop, but he just keeps on putting up zeroes and getting guys out.”
Wrobleski pitched with a lead in five of his six innings, thanks to a pair of runs fueled by Kyle Tucker and Andy Pages doubles in the second inning. Two more hits in the fifth plated another, with Freddie Freeman singling home Hyeseong Kim.
Pages reached on an error, stole second, and scored on an Alex Call single in the ninth inning for some insurance.
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The Dodgers didn’t hit a home run on Sunday, running their streak to six straight games and 232 plate appearances without. It’s the longest power drought for Los Angeles since an eight-game skid from July 10-21, 2014.
But after scoring seven total runs during their four-game losing streak, the four runs felt like a bounty, and in a way it was, representing their largest output since Monday.
Sunday particulars
Home runs: none
WP — Justin Wrobleski (5-0): 6 IP, 6 hits, 1 walk
LP — Dustin May (3-3): 6 IP, 7 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts
Sv — Tanner Scott (2): 1 IP, 2 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers move on to Texas, trying to find their way against the Astros beginning Monday night (5:10 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA) at Daikin Park. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is on the mound for Los Angeles. Houstin has not yet announced its starting pitcher.
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