Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski is leaving a great impression on the team, but his story is no longer that of a feisty underdog, but of someone who belongs on the big stage.
Friday’s game vs. the Philadelphia Phillies was quite the momentous moment for Wrobleski — the game was on Apple TV, his idol Clayton Kershaw was in the front row, and he was facing off against one of the hottest teams in baseball.
The Phillies, under former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, have gone through quite the resurgence, though it is more of a correction to the mean.
Philadelphia was expected to be one of the Dodgers’ biggest hurdles on their way to a three-peat, but the Phillies got off to such a slow start that they shockingly fired their manager midseason.
Under Mattingly, the team has stabilized as its health has improved and its star players have stepped up.
With the Dodgers legend coming back home serving as a big storyline and the playoff atmosphere in late May, the stage was as big as it gets during the regular season.
Wrobleski took the opportunity to announce his presence to the rest of the league, showing that his Game 7 performance was no fluke.
Wrobleski’s ceiling railing performance
For the first time all season long, Wrobleski had the ability to get his signature easy outs with an aggressive approach, while adding in the strikeouts.
He finished with nine strikeouts and really just one mistake pitch, which was crushed by Kyle Schwarber for a home run.
Other than that, he was lights out, looking like his former teammate and mentor Clayton Kershaw, who delivered those kinds of performances on the regular.
Wrobleski was amped on the night, with his fastball averaging 1.1 mph more than his seasonal figure. Additionally, his curveball had more drop, and he was spinning his pitches more than he had all year long.
His velocity even reached 97.3 mph on a couple of occasions, demonstrating his ability to increase his speed when needed.
This is quite game-changing if Wrobleski can figure out how to bring his out regularly. He already has great movement on his fastball despite more middle-of-the-pack speeds. It misses the heart of bats and allows him to avoid too many dangerous hits.
If he can push it harder during his starts, he can get more natural whiffs from just throwing the ball harder and faster, complementing his slider even more.
However, after his outing, Wrobleski did not seem sure what clicked.
“I can’t tell you the exact thing,” Wrobleski said. “I don’t really know what exactly it was. But I just felt better today.”
“It’s just kind of felt like a little bit of a missing piece, just kind of something that I know I have in me, and it would make me better.”
The stuff that he shows on Friday is truly game-changing, and it raises his ceiling from a swing man who can eat innings and be effective to someone who belongs in the rotation full-time, becoming even a midfle of the rotation arm in a title-winning unit.
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