LOS ANGELES — Justin Wrobleski on Tuesday night had another strong start in a season that is filling up with them, and authored the first two-thirds of a game that lasted only one hour, 52 minutes.
Drew Rasmussen was also quite good, going seven innings for the Rays, and allowed the only run of the game, a solo home run by Shohei Ohtani in the sixth inning. That was the recipe for a quick game, especially with Will Klein, Kyle Hurt, and Tanner Scott retiring eight of their nine batters faced out of the Dodgers
bullpen.
“Not only myself, but everyone that came out of the bullpen filled the zone and did a great job. When [Rasmussen] is dealing and we pitch a good game, too, that’s a product of it,” Wrobleski said Tuesday night. “Under two hours is pretty cool, especially when we’ve got a noon game tomorrow, so that’s good for the boys.”
Wrobleski needed only 67 pitches to get through his six innings, and was pulled due to a combination of pitching on four days rest plus some hard-hit balls later in his outing. He had the second straight quality start for the Dodgers after fellow left-hander Eric Lauer went six innings on Monday.
“He fills the zone up a lot, he’s not afraid to go after guys. I think that plays into his hand of, ‘I have a lot of good stuff, and I’m going to come after you with everything I’ve got,’” Lauer said of Wrobleski on Wednesday, as shown on SportsNet LA. “He throws hard, has good offspeed stuff, and keeps them off balance with that curveball now. He stays in the zone and gets guys out in the zone, which is hard to do.”
“You know he’s going to go after guys. His first pitch is like his last pitch,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s the epitome of go as hard as you can for as long as you can, until the manager takes the ball from you.”
Wrobleski this season has thrown 66.9 percent of his pitches for strikes, tops on the team and 16th among 128 qualified major league pitchers.
“Our defense is incredible, they’ve been great all year,” Wrobleski said Tuesday. “It gives me confidence to just fill the zone, and let them make plays behind me.”
That’s helped Wrobleski last at least six innings in nine of his 12 starts, including four starts of seven innings or longer. He’s also started two of the three shortest Dodgers games of the season. He went seven innings and struck out nine Phillies in a win on May 29 at Dodger Stadium that lasted two hours, three minutes.
But one hour, 52 minutes on Tuesday was a real throwback game, and the shortest game lasting at least nine innings so far of this MLB season.
The Dodgers hadn’t had a game that short for nearly 34 years. October 4, 1992 was the last time they played a game so quick, a 3-0 loss to the Houston Astros in The Astrodome on the final day of a miserable 99-loss season for the Dodgers, their worst year in the live-ball era.
It was also the final game in the 31-year career of legendary umpire Doug Harvey, who worked behind the plate that Sunday. According to accounts from some Astros in the Associated Press game report, Harvey may have helped that game move along rather quickly:
“I knew there would be an expanded strike zone today,” Howe said after Houston beat the Dodgers, 3-0, in a 1-hour, 44-minute game, shortest in the National League since April 10, 1989. “I told our guys just to be aggressive.”
“He called a strike on me,” Houston pitcher Pete Harnisch said, “and then he looked at me and said, ‘That pitch wasn’t even close.’ ”
Harnisch matched his personal best with 12 strikeouts.
Harvey, who was also behind the plate for Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2010.
