The Los Angeles Dodgers did something they hadn’t done since before winning the first of back-to-back World Series in their Freeway Series opener with the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif., on Friday night.
Beat the Angels.
Despite having to put scheduled starter Blake Snell on the injured list because of loose bodies in his left elbow a few hours before the first pitch, the Dodgers’ bullpen patched together an impressive two-hitter in a 6-0 victory, striking out 11 batters in the process.
The win snapped the Dodgers’ seven-game losing streak to their Southern California rivals dating back to Sept. 3, 2024.
“Yeah, it does (feel good),” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said afterward. “Couldn’t beat these guys last year, couldn’t beat the Brewers last year. So yeah, it was nice to beat these guys.”
Trying to make it two in a row figures to be a tough task, however.
Right-hander Jose Soriano (6-2, 1.66 ERA) will try to snap the Angels’ four-game losing streak Saturday night and will be opposed by left-hander Justin Wrobleski (5-1, 2.42).
Soriano was the American League’s Pitcher of the Month for March/April after compiling an 0.84 ERA with 49 strikeouts in seven starts. He comes in off one of his better starts of the season, a 6-1 victory at Toronto on Sunday that saw him retire 20 in a row at one point. He allowed one run on five hits and struck out seven over 7 2/3 innings.
His only two losses of the season came against the Chicago White Sox. Take out the eight earned runs Chicago scored against him in nine innings, and Soriano would be undefeated with an ERA of 0.40.
Soriano is 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in two career appearances against the Dodgers. He allowed two hits while striking out six over six shutout innings in a 7-4 victory last August in his lone career start against the Dodgers.
After using eight relievers on Friday, Roberts will be counting on Wrobleski to provide some length in his start Saturday. He did just that his last start, a 7-2 loss to Atlanta on Sunday, allowing seven runs over 8 2/3 innings.
Prior to that, Wrobleski, who is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in one career relief appearance against the Angels, had allowed just two earned runs over his previous 32 innings.
“They did a fantastic job. All of them,” Roberts said of his bullpen after the game on Friday. “We got through tonight. Tomorrow we’ve got a couple guys down but we’ve got ‘Wrobo’ going who can take down a lot of outs, so we couldn’t have asked for a better situation.”
The Angels are 1-6 in their past seven games and have lost four in a row since Soriano’s gem against the Blue Jays. After a solid 11-10 start to the season, the Angels have won just five times in 24 games.
Offense continues to be the main problem for first-year manager Kurt Suzuki’s team. The loss to the Dodgers marked the 15th time in the past 24 games that the Angels scored two runs or fewer.
“Bullpen games you get different looks every inning,” Suzuki said. “I thought we swung the bats OK, hit some balls hard right at guys and had nothing to show for it. We couldn’t muster anything up. It was tough tonight.”
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who was reinstated from the 10-day injured list prior to the game after suffering a small fracture in his left wrist on April 26, left the game at the start of the sixth inning with wrist irritation after getting hit on the same wrist blocking a wild pitch in the fourth inning.
“We’ll check him out today, see how he is and see how he feels tomorrow morning,” Suzuki said. “It was more precautionary to get him out of there instead of making him play through something and have something bad happen.”
–Field Level Media
