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Shohei Ohtani provides the game’s only run to back a sharp Justin Wrobleski and a dominant pen – Dodgers Digest

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Shohei Ohtani provides the game’s only run to back a sharp Justin Wrobleski and a dominant pen – Dodgers Digest

One way to make thing easier when you have a day game tomorrow is to cruise through a game in under two hours, and thanks to great pitching performances the Dodgers and Rays did exactly that with a 112-minute affair. Speaking of great performances, Shohei Ohtani was the difference in the game, backing a stellar effort from Justin Wrobleski and the pen in a 1-0 shutout victory.

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With his stuff taking a step forward, Justin Wrobleski is in a much more sustainable place now.

He started with a pair of strikeouts in a clean 1st, then faced the minimum in a 10-pitch 2nd despite a Max Muncy error thanks to a double play.

He gave up just a two-out single in the 3rd, then worked around a lead-off single and stolen base in the 4th, and cruised through a seven-pitch 5th.

Wrobo then worked around a one-out single in the 6th, as he basically cruised through his outing.

That was all for him as they were conservative on just four days rest and coming off an injury: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 67 Pitches.

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That made for a great pitchers’ duel with Drew Rasmussen, as he was also mostly rolling despite some early trouble.

He got out of a bit of a jam in the 1st caused by back-to-back one-out singles thanks to a double play, but the 2nd was a potential turning point. After a bloop single from Kyle Tucker, Ryan Ward followed by hitting a ball down the line in right, but he had to settle for a single himself as it hit the umpire and deadened the ball.

So things were cornered with one out and Alex Freeland tried a safety squeeze, but bunting it hard right back to the pitcher and was lucky to not have a double play turned as they opted to get Tucker going for the plate. Rally and chance killed.

The last two outs of that inning started a streak of 11 in a row retired for Rasmussen, as he was absolutely cruising.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, they have that Shohei Ohtani guy, and he stayed hot to begin the 6th by hitting the first pitch he saw for 15th homer of the year to make it 1-0 Dodgers.

Eric Karros was turned on.

Rasmussen gave up a single later in the inning, but worked around that, and then got a clean 7th to end his outing.

Cam Booser then got a clean 8th for the Rays out of the pen, closing the book on the bats.

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For the Dodgers pen, now protecting the slimmest of margins, it was Will Klein in the 7th. He started with a walk, but rebounded with a strikeout and double play to keep things rolling along.

Kyle Hurt followed in the 8th and continued to bounce back, throwing nothing but strikes in a clean frame that included a strikeout.

The 9th then belonged to Tanner Scott, who looked dominant in getting two strikeouts on ugly swings and a routine flyout.

The guy they wanted.

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47-27, breaking up the streak of nine games in a row exchanging wins and losses.

The Dodgers will go for the sweep at the way-too-early time of 9:10 AM HT/12:10 PM PT/3:10 PM ET. It’ll be Shohei Ohtani presumably taking the mound despite his knee inflammation issue, and he’ll be facing Shane McClanahan.

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