Wrobleski's grit not enough as Dodgers continue offensive funk

LOS ANGELES — There are losses that spiral quickly, and then there are losses that somehow reveal something useful beneath the damage. Sunday’s 7-2 defeat to the Braves at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium fell firmly into the second category for the Dodgers.

The final line was ugly. The Braves took two of three from the defending champions. The Dodgers dropped to 24-16 and are now tied with the Padres atop the National League West. Their offense continues to sputter. Shohei Ohtani is mired in one of the coldest stretches of his career. And despite Max Muncy’s late two-run homer, the game never truly felt within reach.

Yet the strangest and perhaps most important story of Mother’s Day belonged to Justin Wrobleski.

At first glance, his outing looked disastrous: 8 ⅔ innings, seven earned runs, seven hits, seven strikeouts, 100 pitches, and his first loss of the season. Statistically, it was one of the strangest pitching lines the Dodgers have seen in decades. Wrobleski became the first Dodgers pitcher since Rick Sutcliffe in 1979 to throw at least 8 ⅔ innings while allowing seven or more earned runs. No major league pitcher had done it since Carlos Silva in 2006.

But inside that bizarre line score was a performance the Dodgers may actually value more than the box score suggests.

Because after one brutal inning threatened to bury both Wrobleski and the Dodgers bullpen, the left-hander steadied himself and delivered something this exhausted pitching staff desperately needed: length.

The game turned in the second inning, and Wrobleski knew exactly where it slipped away.

With the Braves already threatening, a ground ball came directly back to the mound, the kind of inning-ending double play pitchers dream about. Instead, Wrobleski’s throw to second sailed high, forcing Alex Freeland into an awkward catch-and-transfer attempt that prevented the Dodgers from escaping cleanly.

Moments later, Mauricio Dubón ripped a bases-clearing double. The Braves had a 4-0 lead, and Dodger Stadium fell quiet.

“I just didn’t turn the double play,” Wrobleski said afterward. “If I had turned the double play, 8 ⅔ innings, two or three runs, this isn’t a bad outing.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski (70) throws in the ninth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium.

What followed may have been the most impressive part of his afternoon. Lesser outings can unravel after defensive mistakes or crooked innings. Wrobleski instead responded by retiring 16 consecutive hitters at one point and later erased another baserunner with a double play in the eighth.

For long stretches, he completely controlled one of baseball’s best lineups.

That matters.

The Dodgers bullpen has been stretched heavily over the past several weeks, and with another long homestand ahead, Dave Roberts needed innings anywhere he could find them. Wrobleski gave them nearly a complete game despite the early damage.

At just 86 pitches entering the ninth inning, Roberts allowed him to continue chasing the first complete game of his young career. The decision was understandable. Wrobleski had earned it.

Then came the reminder that baseball rarely rewards sentimentality.

Matt Olson led off the ninth with a home run to right field, extending the Braves lead to 6-2. Moments later, Jorge Mateo added an RBI single before Roberts finally removed Wrobleski one out shy of finishing what had become a marathon afternoon.

“It’s great to get to the ninth inning,” Wrobleski said. “It’s great to have a chance, and obviously, one gets away from you there and I don’t end up getting to finish it, which sucks.”

The frustration was evident, but so was the maturity.

Wrobleski could have folded after the second inning. Instead, he gave the Dodgers something sustainable. He competed. He adjusted. He attacked. And in a season where Los Angeles continues searching for reliable rotation depth behind its stars, outings like this still carry value even when the scoreboard says otherwise.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, there was little margin for error offensively once again.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Atlanta Braves pitcher Bryce Elder (55) pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning at Dodger Stadium.

Bryce Elder dominated the Dodgers for 5 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while repeatedly escaping trouble. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the sixth and nearly flipped the game entirely when Muncy launched a deep drive toward right field that initially looked destined to become a game-tying grand slam.

Instead, Eli White crashed face-first into the wall while making a spectacular catch to preserve Atlanta’s lead and perhaps the entire game.

Two innings later, Muncy finally broke through with his 10th homer of the season, a towering two-run blast to right.

“Next at bat I said I’m going to swing straight up,” Muncy joked afterward. “If I hit it in the air, they can’t catch it.”

The humor masked a growing concern surrounding this lineup.

The Dodgers have now lost seven of their last 11 games, and in all seven losses they failed to score more than two runs. They are 1-12 this season when scoring two runs or fewer. 

Ohtani went 0-for-4 and has just four hits in his last 33 at-bats. The offense looks disconnected inning to inning, something Roberts openly acknowledged after the game.

“We really haven’t been able to put together innings,” Roberts said. “We’ve been in this funk for quite some time.”

That funk now follows them into a four-game series against the Giants beginning Monday night, with Roki Sasaki scheduled to take the mound.

But on a frustrating Mother’s Day afternoon defined by another quiet offensive showing, the Dodgers may still walk away remembering Wrobleski’s resilience more than his stat line.