{"id":991956,"date":"2026-08-09T23:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T23:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/991956\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T23:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T23:18:19","slug":"justin-wrobleskis-struggles-lead-to-dodgers-eighth-loss-in-nine-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/991956\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Wrobleski’s struggles lead to Dodgers’ eighth loss in nine games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0It\u2019s no secret that the Dodgers<\/a> haven\u2019t played their best baseball over the last nine days. But during their 4-2 loss<\/a> to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, they played some of their worst.<\/p>\n

Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski<\/a> remained in a rut, giving up four runs (three earned) in 3\u2153 innings. The two-run homer he surrendered to Diamondbacks switch hitter Ketel Marte<\/a> in the first inning was the ninth home run he has given up in three starts.<\/p>\n

Before his recent struggles, Wrobleski hadn\u2019t surrendered more than three homers in three games this season.<\/p>\n

He left a fastball belt-high to Marte, who entered Sunday with a .913 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Marte lined it into the Diamondbacks\u2019 bullpen in the left-field corner.<\/p>\n

After Wrobleski\u2019s last start, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers (70-48) would look into whether the left-hander might be tipping pitches, but he said before the game Sunday that those suspicions seemed \u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wrobleski clearly wasn\u2019t at his best, giving up six hits and three walks, sloppy defense didn\u2019t help his cause.<\/p>\n

He could have been out of the first inning before the home run, but shortstop Mookie Betts<\/a> seemed to get a poor grip on the ball as he attempted to turn a double play.<\/p>\n

The next inning, Wrobleski fielded a sacrifice bunt and sailed his throw high and wide to first base, allowing a run to score and putting another runner on base.<\/p>\n

Later in the inning, though the run would have likely scored anyway, the usually strong relay combination of center fielder Andy Pages<\/a> and Betts ended with Betts throwing over catcher Ben Rortvedt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 offense, in the meantime, went down in order in the first two innings. Betts made the best contact, but his opposite-field fly to the warning track found leather.<\/p>\n

The rest of the way, the Dodgers tightened up their defense, and their bullpen shut down the Diamondbacks (63-56). The Dodgers\u2019 lineup strung together hits to score on Pages\u2019 third-inning double and Kyle Tucker<\/a>\u2018s sixth-inning triple. But they still lost for the eighth time in nine games. <\/p>\n

Here are three other takeaways from the Dodgers\u2019 1-5 road trip:<\/p>\n

Hitting into double plays \"\" <\/p>\n

The Dodgers have grounded into an MLB-leading 99 double plays, including one in the eighth inning Sunday.<\/p>\n

Part of that has to do with how often the Dodgers get on base. Entering Sunday, they led the majors in on-base percentage (.339). But hitting into double plays has been a major culprit behind the Dodgers\u2019 recent offensive struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not age,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about putting guys in motion, because you start doing things just to do things. And when a guy swings and misses and gets thrown out by 10 feet, that\u2019s a bad process.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to layer it on who the hitter is, the contact ability; who the pitcher is, the swing-and-miss rate; who the runner is. So there\u2019s a lot of people that can look at the rate that we hit into double plays and have thoughts, but they\u2019re not thought through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts pointed instead to the batter\u2019s approach at the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thought is our guys need to do a better job at understanding what the pitcher is trying to do,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Back end of the bullpen \"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers closer Edwin D\u00edaz delivers in the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Mike Christy \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Setup man Tanner Scott<\/a> and closer Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> were not available out of the bullpen after pitching Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s velocity has fluctuated over the past week, but Roberts said the Dodgers haven\u2019t yet found an explanation for the trend.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz recorded blown saves in each game. Still, Roberts noted his intensity Saturday, after D\u00edaz gave up the lead with back-to-back triples.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just, you want to be perfect, you\u2019re trying to get your feet under you, you\u2019ve been in rehab mode a lot,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut this is something I think can be a springboard for outings to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen to function effectively, they need D\u00edaz to turn around his injury-disrupted season (10.80 ERA in 12 appearances).<\/p>\n

Home sweet home<\/p>\n

For the first time, the Dodgers are set to roll out their new one-two punch of two-time Cy Young winners. Tarik Skubal is scheduled to make his home debut at Dodger Stadium on Monday against the Kansas City Royals, followed by Blake Snell\u2019s return from the injured list Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one side of it, you feel it as the home team because you feel the confidence of who you\u2019re running out there,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut on the other side, it seems daunting when you look at the probables and you see these Cy Young guys back to back. It\u2019s a lot to take in as an offense. So it feels really good to have those two guys on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto at the top of the rotation, the trio has the potential to be even more impactful in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to win with starting pitching,\u201d Roberts said of the playoffs. \u201cYou really do. I know in \u201824 we did it a different way, but starting pitching is kind of your backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0It\u2019s no secret that the Dodgers haven\u2019t played their best baseball over the last nine days. But during…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":991957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[397747,1279,19497,1582,276,2442,26803,1910,22796,2961,224,5337,16103,2749,397749,10201,397748,22799,62104,22798],"class_list":["post-991956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-8th-loss","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-bullpen","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dodgers","tag-first-inning","tag-game","tag-justin-wrobleski","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-marte","tag-mookie-betts","tag-ninth-home-run","tag-run","tag-sloppy-defense","tag-start","tag-struggle","tag-wrobleski"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117068110909310907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/991957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}