Wrobleski dominates Mets behind two-hit gem

LOS ANGELES — The crowd at Dodger Stadium didn’t need a radar gun reading to understand what was unfolding Monday night. It was quieter than that, cleaner than that — a rhythm game, dictated entirely by Justin Wrobleski, who carved through the New York Mets with the kind of efficiency that’s become increasingly rare in modern baseball.

Eight innings. Two hits. No walks. 90 pitches.

It wasn’t overpowering. It was something better.

“It’s something I think that’s really cool and not a lot of people do anymore,” Wrobleski said afterward, still thinking about the complete game that slipped just out of reach.

For a night, though, he didn’t need it.

From the first pitch, Wrobleski established tone and tempo. 13 up, 13 down to open the game, no traffic, no stress, no wasted motion. 

When Jorge Polanco broke through with a one-out single in the fifth, Wrobleski erased it immediately, inducing a double play from Francisco Alvarez. Minimum batters faced, just like that.

“The key is to keep attacking,” Wrobleski said. “That’s always the goal for me.”

He did more than attack — he dictated.

By the fourth inning, he knew what was at stake.

“I knew it was happening,” he admitted of the no-hit bid. “But for me, just keep my head down… it’s just something that happens when you execute.”

That execution carried him into the eighth, where Alvarez finally lined a clean single to center, ending any lingering thoughts of history. By then, the outcome had long been decided.

Dave Roberts called it a “great Major League outing,” and the phrasing fit. Not just for the stat line, but for the context.

Wrobleski hadn’t gone more than five innings in a long time, a product of last season’s bullpen role and workload management. Pushing him into the ninth wasn’t just a baseball decision; it was an organizational one.

“For me, the decision was, you’re talking about the health of a player,” Roberts said. “For him to get up eight times and throw the baseball the way he did, you could see the velocity start to go down.”

That was the tell. Subtle, but enough.

Wrobleski understood.

“If Doc tells me right now we’re going with Tanner, I trust in Doc,” he said.

There was no frustration — just perspective from a pitcher who knows he’s still earning his place.

The offense made sure his work wouldn’t go to waste.

Will Smith got things started early with an RBI single in the first, though the Dodgers squandered a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity against David Peterson, who struck out the side to limit the damage.

It didn’t matter for long.

In the third inning, Andy Pages turned a tight game into a comfortable one, launching a three-run homer, his fifth of the season, to push the lead to 4-0. Pages continues to be one of the early stories of the season, hitting north of .400 with an OPS that demands attention.

Pages has five home runs and 20 RBI, which is the most in the league.

Even on a night when Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4, though he did extend his on-base streak to 47 after being hit by a pitch, the lineup produced enough.

Freddie Freeman added two hits. Miguel Rojas collected three, his most in a game since last April. 

When he handed the ball off after eight, the finish was clinical. Tanner Scott needed just eight pitches to close it, preserving the 4-0 win and continuing his own quietly dominant start to the season.

But the night belonged to the starter.

A year ago, Wrobleski was a bullpen piece in October. This spring, he forced his way into the rotation. On Monday, he looked like he belonged at the front of it.

Not because he chased history, but because he controlled everything short of it.

And if this is what a “Justin Wrobleski type performance” looks like, the Dodgers may find themselves having to redefine expectations sooner rather than later.

But for now, the Dodgers will look to win the series as they will hand the ball to Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 2.50 ERA) on Tuesday as the Mets will counter with Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.70 ERA).