The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers entered their weekend series on respective surges, but much like the 2025 National League Championship Series, Friday’s game was a one-sided affair.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, they continued to be flummoxed by the Brewers during the regular season. L.A. has now lost their last nine games to Milwaukee when excluding the postseason.
The Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers last season and got off on the right foot this year.
Brewers 5, Dodgers 1: key takeaways
Justin Wrobleski hit early
Justin Wrobleski’s profile of pitching to contact proved troublesome against a Brewers team that excels in putting the ball in play. Milwaukee opened the bottom of the first inning with three consecutive hits, capped off by William Contreras’ three-run homer.
Three more singles loaded the bases with one out, and the Brewers added onto their lead with a sacrifice fly. Wrobleski threw 38 pitches as the Brewers batted around in the first inning, and the Dodgers faced a 4-0 deficit.
Milwaukee extended their lead to 5-0 on Andrew Vaughn’s two-out RBI double in the second inning. That was followed by Wrobleski retiring nine of the final 10 batters faced to get through five innings. It wound up being just about the only silver lining from his outing.
Wrobleski entered the night 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA in four road starts this season. Among qualified starters, his road ERA ranked third in the National League.
Dodgers’ missed opportunities
Brewers rookie starter Logan Henderson held the Dodgers without a hit until Shohei Ohtani’s leadoff single in the fourth inning. Up to that point Ohtani had been the Dodgers’ lone baserunner when he started the game with a walk. Ohtani was subsequently thrown out trying to steal second base to end the first inning.
His single in the fourth inning sparked something of a rally as Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages both walked to load the bases. Henderson worked his way through the jam by retiring Max Muncy.
Two more baserunners were stranded in the sixth inning when Muncy flied out to right field. The Dodgers had the first two batters reach base in the seventh, only to come away with one run on Ohtani’s sacrifice fly.
The Dodgers went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base. Overall, they went just 1-for-17 with a runner on.
Bullpen streak
Albeit in the losing effort, Friday was the ninth game the Dodgers bullpen did not allow a run. Paul Gervase and the newly-signed Jonathan Hernández extended the streak in the series opener.
The Dodgers bullpen collectively now is in the midst of a scoreless streak of 32 innings. It’s the second-longest stretch by relief pitchers in franchise history in the expansion era (since 1961), trailing 33 consecutive scoreless innings by the Dodgers bullpen in 1998.
Max Muncy injury?
Potentially compounding matters for the Dodgers is Muncy was removed from the game in the eighth inning after getting hit by a pitch in his right hand/wrist.
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