by Cary Osborne
There was a moment after Sunday’s game when Dodger starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski found himself getting emotional talking about his parents.
“I can’t really find the words how much they’ve done for me in this baseball journey,” he said.
Then he powered through, beating the tears back.
It was like his start on Sunday in his Major League debut.
His first three innings against the Brewers at Dodger Stadium were scoreless. But in the fourth and fifth, he had a few potentially shell-shocking moments.
All-Star Christian Yelich hit a two-run home run off him in the fourth. Willy Adames followed and the 23-year-old Wrobleski didn’t wilt. He went right back into the strikezone and induced a groundout off the bat of the veteran shortstop.
In the fifth, Wrobleski allowed another two-run homer, this to catcher Eric Haase.
Wrobleski attacked the zone against the next batter Jackson Chourio and got another groundout.
“That’s my game. My game is going to be throwing strikes, pound the zone,” Wrobleski said. “Whatever happens, happens. I think that’s part of the reason that I have success is I’ll go on runs where like the two pitches I missed today, obviously they got hurt. I can go on stretches where those pitches aren’t getting hit. And that was the difference in the game. Those are the difference between 15 scoreless innings in a row and obviously what happened today. So it’s just part of the game. You’ve got to fill the zone. You can’t be scared.”
Wrobleski went five innings, allowed five hits, two walks, four runs (all earned) and struck out four batters in his Major League debut — a Dodgers 9–2 loss to the Brewers. But it was an efficient 76 pitches for Wrobleski, who threw 49 pitches in the strikezone. He threw five different pitches but relied mostly on his four-seamer (which averaged 95.2 mph and touched 97.8), cutter and slider.
Manager Dave Roberts liked his mettle.
“He’s really sure of himself as far as knowing who he is as a person, as a ballplayer,” Roberts said. “I’m really, really impressed with the way he carried himself today. The emotions didn’t get too much for him. I know his stuff plays here.”
Roberts said the Dodgers will make a move for their roadtrip that begins Tuesday in Philadelphia to get a fresh arm and send Wrobleski back to the Minor Leagues.
Roberts confidently said we’ll see Wrobleski again soon.
The left-hander, who has risen quickly since his professional debut in 2022, had a few welcome to the big league moments on Sunday. Clayton Kershaw, who he listed as his favorite athlete in his bio at Oklahoma City, gave him a supportive greeting in the dugout after one inning. And after he retired the side in the first inning, Shohei Ohtani gave him a fist bump on his way into the dugout.
Wrobleski said both were cool moments. He also talked about how grateful he was to get to the big leagues. But he also said something else that says a lot about who he is.
“I feel like I belong here,” he said.
Justin Wrobleski impresses in his debut with attack-mode mentality was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.