Justin Wrobleski dominates Phillies as Dodgers win sixth straight

LOS ANGELES — Justin Wrobleski walked off the mound Friday night after delivering the best start of his young major league career, but his mind wasn't focused on the seven dominant innings he had just thrown.

It was fixed on one pitch.

After carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning against one of baseball's most dangerous lineups, Wrobleski watched Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber crush a 95-mph fastball 411 feet over the head of center fielder Andy Pages, ending both the no-hit bid and the shutout.

The Dodgers left-hander wasn't interested in celebrating what had otherwise been a masterpiece.

"I knew. I was pissed when I gave up that hit, it sucks," Wrobleski said. "It's frustrating to give up a homer right there as the first hit of the game."

That reaction said everything about where Wrobleski is in his development.

Seven innings. One hit. One run. No walks. Nine strikeouts. 88 pitches.

And he was still angry.

"Whatever," Wrobleski said. "I'm going to look back and be mad about that but at the same time I'm happy with the outing. He put a good swing on it."

The homer may have spoiled the no-hit dream, but it didn't diminish what Wrobleski accomplished Friday night in the Dodgers' 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies before a crowd of 50,834 at Dodger Stadium.

Facing one of the National League's hottest clubs, Wrobleski attacked relentlessly from the first pitch. He retired hitters efficiently, pounded the strike zone and generated swings and misses at a rate he hadn't shown all season.

The only baserunner through five innings came in the fourth when a dropped fly ball in right field by Kyle Tucker to reach. Otherwise, the Phillies had no answers.

Even after Schwarber's blast, Wrobleski never lost his composure.

Perhaps fittingly, Schwarber was the one player capable of ruining the evening.

Wrobleski knew it immediately.

"I looked at him and that's how I know if he got it or not," Wrobleski said. "You kinda look at their reaction and I knew he got it. I've seen it a thousand times, I grew up a Cubs fan. I've seen him do that a lot."

The home run was the lone blemish against Wrobleski, who improved to 7-2 and lowered his ERA to 2.87, placing him among the National League leaders.

More importantly, it represented a dramatic turnaround from a pitcher who had surrendered 14 runs across his previous three starts.

Dave Roberts noticed one significant difference.

"I thought tonight, the biggest thing was the velocity," Roberts said. "The slider was good. Those guys had to honor it."

Roberts later added that the increased velocity gave Wrobleski a larger margin for error and allowed him to maximize both his secondary pitches and the defense behind him.

Wrobleski agreed something felt different.

"Just something clicked for me," he said. "I felt good. I feel like my mechanics are in a good spot."

The results were impossible to ignore.

Wrobleski established a career high with nine strikeouts and consistently overpowered a Phillies lineup that entered the series as one of the most dangerous offensive groups in baseball.

While Wrobleski authored the headline performance, the Dodgers offense supplied all the support he needed by turning Zack Wheeler's night into an unexpected Home Run Derby.

Freddie Freeman opened the scoring with an opposite-field blast in the first inning, the 375th home run of his career. Max Muncy followed with a towering fly ball in the second inning, his 13th homer of the season and 222nd as a Dodger.

Shohei Ohtani joined the party in the third with his 10th homer, and Will Smith capped the barrage with a fifth-inning shot that made it four solo home runs against Wheeler.

It marked just the second time in Wheeler's career that he had surrendered four home runs in a game.

"Tonight, we had four really good swings and had a great pitching performance by Wrobo and that's all we needed," Roberts said.

The game tightened after Wrobleski exited with a 4-1 lead.

Edgardo Henriquez allowed a double to Brandon Marsh and an RBI single by Steward Berroa in the eighth inning, cutting the lead to 4-2 and bringing the tying run to the plate.

That set the stage for perhaps the most electric moment of the night.

With two outs and Berroa on first, Roberts brought in Alex Vesia on his bobblehead night to face Schwarber, who already had one thunderous swing to his credit.

This time, Vesia won.

He elevated a slider away and got Schwarber to swing through it for a strikeout, sending Dodger Stadium into a frenzy. Vesia stormed off the mound with the same fiery energy captured in the bobblehead being handed out throughout the ballpark.

It was the defining bullpen moment of the game. The Phillies' best hitter represented the tying run. Vesia never gave him a chance.

The Dodgers closed out their sixth consecutive victory and improved to 37-20, continuing one of their strongest stretches of the season. They have now won 13 of their last 15 games and extended their National League West lead to 4½ games over San Diego and 5½ over Arizona.

"I think there's more intent," Roberts said when asked about the club's recent surge. "We hit four homers tonight. We didn't put a lot of hits together but I still thought that we were still on the aggressive side of things offensively."

That aggression has fueled the offense.

The no-hitter disappeared with one swing. The frustration lingered afterward. Against one of baseball's best teams, Wrobleski looked every bit like a pitcher emerging into a frontline role.

And if his reaction to a one-hit, nine-strikeout performance is any indication, he's only scratching the surface.