HOUSTON – Not again. But almost.
Saturday night, rookie starter Justin Wrobleski took a shutout into the sixth inning. It was his first time pitching into the sixth inning in a major-league start and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled him after 82 pitches with two outs and Yainer Diaz coming up for the Astros.
Even Roberts admitted afterward that the game turned on that decision. The Dodgers’ bullpen blew a five-run lead and they lost.
Change only a few of the details. Sunday afternoon, it was rookie starter River Ryan who took a shutout into the sixth inning. It was only his second time as a professional pitching into a sixth inning (both of his major-league starts) and he had already topped his career-high in pitches – with two outs and Diaz coming up.
Roberts did it again, pulling Ryan in favor of lefty reliever Alex Vesia – who promptly gave up a two-run home run to Diaz, making it a one-run game. This time, though, it stopped there. The Dodgers added more runs and the bullpen made this lead stand up for a 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros, avoiding a three-game sweep at Minute Maid Park.
“He was going batter to batter,” Roberts said of his sixth-inning decision making. “Last time was his first time going into the sixth and you know the stress at the big leagues is more than in the minors. You can’t quantify it. I wanted to keep a close eye on him and I thought it was the right time.”
Roberts acknowledged that there was some ‘deja vu’ feeling after Saturday’s game turned on the same decision in the sixth inning.
“Yeah, but the thing is … I have to do what I feel is the right thing to do and that’s first and foremost, protecting the player and then trying to win a game,” he said. “It doesn’t always work, but again, what he’s done, for me to push him much more than that, I think it would’ve been irresponsible.”
Ryan wound up throwing 91 pitches after never having thrown more than 75 as a professional — and starting his season two months late due to shoulder problems. But he was ready to keep going.
“I felt great. I was a little tired but other than that – body felt great, shoulder felt great,” Ryan said. “I was begging Doc to let me go another guy but I threw too many pitches.”
In a matchup of rookie pitchers, neither Ryan nor Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti gave up a hit in the first four innings.
Arrighetti handcuffed the Dodgers, striking out seven of the first 11 batters he faced. James Outman broke through with a solo home run in the fifth and Gavin Lux went deep for a two-run homer in the top of the sixth, staking Ryan to a 3-0 lead.
“It’s a unique fastball,” Lux said of Arrighetti. “It’s kind of a low (arm) slot, has a little upshoot to it. It’s 95-96 (mph). It takes a couple looks to get used to that. I think we eventually got to him a little bit and made some adjustments.”
Ryan didn’t give up his first hit until Jon Singleton’s leadoff double in the fifth. Ryan stranded him at third, getting Jake Meyers to ground out then striking out Victor Caratini and Joey Loperfido.
Before the game, Roberts acknowledged that Ryan would “have to have more leash (to go deeper in the game) because the (bullpen) coverage we don’t have going into today’s game.” Only three relievers were available — Alex Vesia, Joe Kelly and Brent Honeywell Jr. with Ryan Yarbrough only in a “break-glass” emergency situation.
Stretching that coverage over the final four innings was going to be a challenge. When Ryan gave up another leadoff double in the sixth, Roberts had to start thinking about how to stretch a queen-size bedsheet over a king-size bed.
With Vesia warming up, Roberts left Ryan in long enough to face the most dangerous hitters in the Astros lineup a third time. After Jose Altuve’s double, Ryan got Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez on fly balls to center field.
That’s when Roberts decided to make the move and Vesia’s first pitch brought back too-fresh memories of Saturday’s meltdown. Vesia retired the next four batters, getting the one-run lead to the eighth inning. But he did it with diminished velocity. He only threw six fastballs in 18 pitches and they averaged just 91 mph, down from a season average of 93.5 mph.
“That first pitch he comes in and it’s 90 and it was 90-91 all day,” Roberts remarked. “We’ll kind of dig in on him.”
Teoscar Hernandez lined a ball into the Crawford Boxes on the first pitch of the eighth inning and the Dodgers added a little more daylight with an RBI single from Cavan Biggio in the eighth and a sacrifice fly from Jason Heyward in the ninth.
Kelly gave up a double to Altuve but stranded him in the eighth. Honeywell Jr. closed it out in the ninth, securing Ryan’s first major league win.
After getting shut out on Friday, the Dodgers scored six runs in each of the next two games — despite playing a lineup down to one former MVP (Shohei Ohtani) and minus Will Smith on Sunday as well.
“I think we all grinded it out, trying to pass the baton to the next guy,” Lux said. “Top to bottom, one through nine, pretty much all three games I think everybody had great at-bats. I think no one took a pitch off, which was really cool. We easily could’ve won three games, truthfully. We left guys on base the first game, too. I think it was a good top to bottom series, honestly.”
