Justin Wrobleski rejoined the Los Angeles Dodgers when rosters expanded on Sept. 1 and made a spot start against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The left-hander endured the worst outing of his big league career largely due to a disastrous second inning that saw the Diamondbacks push eight runs across the plate.
Wrobleski went on to allow 10 runs on 10 hits while striking out two and walking two. A silver lining was that he provided 5.1 innings, which helped preserve the Dodgers bullpen for the wraparound series finale on Labor Day.
Manager Dave Roberts sees that as a positive and said the team is now focused on securing a series win over the Diamondbacks, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“We got put into a tough spot today,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Then you’re just trying to find a way to salvage pitching. Obviously the bullpen specifically.
“I think the positive is we’re back to full strength for tomorrow with a chance to win the series.”
Roberts believes he had no choice but to let Wrobleski continue pitching and praised him for going about it like a pro:
“It’s not ideal. It’s kind of where we’re at,” Roberts said. “Typically I’m sensitive to guys’ performance and not staying out there and essentially wearing it. But where we’re at, in a playoff race, giving ourselves the best chance to win games going forward, it was the only option. To Justin’s credit, he hung in there and got us into the sixth inning.”
Although Wrobleski’s stats took an overall hit, his ability to pitch into the sixth inning allowed Roberts to save most out of his bullpen for a pivotal matchup against the Diamondbacks on Monday.
After Wrobleski was removed from the game, Michael Grove went on to throw 1.2 innings. Kiké Hernández then pitched the eighth in mop-up duty, which was his third pitching appearance of the season.
Justin Wrobleski’s 2024 season
In the wake of his poor start against the Diamondbacks, Wrobleski is now 1-2 with a 6.82 ERA, 6.80 FIP and 1.39 WHIP over 30.1 innings pitched this season (six starts).
With Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the verge of returning, Wrobleski will likely be sent back down to Triple-A Oklahoma City where he can get consistent reps.
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