Wrobleski's home run troubles continue in loss to Brewers

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers keep running into the same problem against the best team in the National League.

When they needed a big swing, they couldn’t find one. When Justin Wrobleski needed a clean inning, the home run ball found him again.

And against the Milwaukee Brewers, that was enough.

The Dodgers fell 4-1 Saturday afternoon at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, dropping to 74-50 and putting themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position in the National League race. Milwaukee has spent much of this season showing why it sits atop the league. On Saturday, the Brewers didn’t need to overwhelm the Dodgers. They simply waited for the mistakes and capitalized on them.

For Wrobleski, the frustration was particularly difficult to hide.

On the surface, his final line looked respectable: six innings, four hits, four runs, one walk and six strikeouts on 107 pitches. He matched Jacob Misiorowski in innings and strikeouts, allowed one fewer hit and generally gave the Dodgers a chance to stay in the game.

But two of those four hits left the ballpark.

That has become the story of Wrobleski’s second half.

He has now surrendered 11 home runs over his last 19 innings, including two Saturday. The pitcher who looked so composed and dependable during the first half has suddenly become vulnerable to two mistakes turning into four runs on the scoreboard.

The first home run Saturday came from Ortiz. The second was perhaps even more frustrating.

Wrobleski got William Contreras into a 1-2 count, then watched Contreras foul off two pitches before crushing a cutter that was below the zone.

That is the part that will stick with Wrobleski.

“I felt like I threw the ball really well today,” he said.

And he wasn’t necessarily wrong.

“He got a slider that was probably going to bounce and hit a homer on it,” Wrobleski said. “Tip your cap, good swing, and then Ortiz got one again, just a good swing. So sometimes that happens, but you know, unfortunately, it's been happening a lot to me lately, and it's super frustrating because today I felt like I threw the ball really well, and it just kind of gets spoiled by those two hits.”

That last sentence tells the story.

The Dodgers didn’t get beaten because Wrobleski suddenly forgot how to pitch. They got beaten because against a team like Milwaukee, two mistakes can erase six otherwise competitive innings.

Dave Roberts saw it similarly.

“Him getting us through six innings was good,” Roberts said. “It’s unfortunate because they put two good swings on us.”

That is both the encouragement and the warning for Wrobleski.

The Dodgers need the version of him that can get through six innings. They need him to attack hitters, miss bats and give the bullpen a chance. But they also need to find a way to stop the ball from leaving the yard at this rate.

Because the margins are getting thinner.

The Dodgers' offense had its chances Saturday, too, but Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski was good enough to make every opportunity feel like work.

Roberts put it bluntly afterward.

“I’ve never seen the first four pitches of a game at 104 MPH.”

Misiorowski’s velocity was obvious from the beginning, but what made him difficult was that the Dodgers couldn’t consistently solve his secondary stuff. Through six innings, he had thrown only nine sliders. The Dodgers swung at seven of them.

They missed all seven.

Then, in the fifth inning, Misiorowski went back to the slider to escape a bases-loaded jam, striking out Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to strand the Dodgers’ biggest opportunity of the afternoon.

That was the game.

The Dodgers got traffic. They just couldn't turn it into enough runs.

Alex Call was one of the few hitters who consistently found a way against Misiorowski, collecting two hits after starting in right field with Kyle Tucker on the bench. His first hit was an infield single. His second came later, but neither ultimately mattered enough.

The Dodgers finally broke through when Call reached and Ohtani followed with a triple that rolled all the way into the corner.

Suddenly it was 2-1.

For a moment, the Dodgers had life. They just couldn't keep it.

“I thought we did a pretty good job battling, trying to manufacture runs, and just didn't quite get the big hit today, and that's the way baseball goes,” Call said.

That has been the Dodgers' problem in this series. They have been able to create opportunities. They haven't consistently converted them.

And against Milwaukee, opportunities are not enough.

“You really have to earn it,” Call said of facing Misiorowski.

The Dodgers learned that lesson again Saturday.

Now comes Sunday, and the stakes are considerably higher than a typical August game.

The Dodgers will send Tarik Skubal to the mound with a chance to salvage the series and prevent Milwaukee from creating even more separation. If the Dodgers lose, they will fall three games behind the Brewers and lose the tiebreaker. If they win, they move within one game and take the tiebreaker.

That is a massive swing in the standings.

For all the talk about October, this is the part of August when the Dodgers need to start treating games against Milwaukee like October games.

Wrobleski’s outing Saturday wasn't a disaster. In many ways, it was encouraging. He gave the Dodgers six innings and struck out six against the best team in the National League.

But the Dodgers cannot keep asking themselves to overcome the same mistake. The long ball has spoiled too many good innings for Wrobleski since the All-Star break.

And against Milwaukee, “pretty good” isn't always good enough.

Roberts knows that. Wrobleski knows that. The Dodgers know that.

“It is what it is,” Roberts said. “We lost a ball game. We put ourselves in position to split the series.”

Now they have to finish the job.