Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski shouted two words — the first of which didn’t appear to be fit for print — and strode off the mound, the icy expression on his face frozen in place all the way to the dugout.
He had just struck out the side in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 4-2 win Friday against the Phillies, finishing the job by getting Brandon Marsh to whiff on a fastball low and in — the same spot Wrobleski had hit with his slider for a called strike earlier in the at-bat.
He used his fastball to get to two strikes, too, catching Marsh off guard with, as Wrobleski put it, “a modified, slide-step, out-of-the-windup fastball” off the plate.
“And it just kind of opened up some space there for the strikeout,” he added. “He got me last year, and I didn’t want him to get me again.”
Wrobleski’s performance — seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball — was a masterful bounce-back, powered by that fastball. After yielding just two runs in his first five combined starts, Wrobleski hit a rough patch, recording a 6.41 ERA over his last three appearances.
On Friday, Wrobleski didn’t just rediscover his former dominance. In many ways, he was even better. And he laid the groundwork for the Dodgers’ sixth straight victory, their 13th in 15 games.
“It was just the uptick in fastball velocity,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Those guys had to honor it. When you can reach back for 97, makes life a lot easier.”
Wrobleski’s four-seam fastball velocity, sitting at 94.5 mph, was up 1.2 mph over his season average and topped out at 97.2 mph. Wrobleski, who typically relies on pitching to contact, recorded an impressive 54% whiff rate on that pitch.
“This is sustainable,” Roberts said. “He’s had good outings, he’s chewed up a lot of innings. But when you can get the swing-and-miss in the zone, that’s kind of a separator for any pitcher.”
Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski delivers during the first inning Friday against Philadelphia at Dodger Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Wrobleski was unhittable for most of the game. Right fielder Kyle Tucker’s fielding error gave the Phillies their first baserunner.
With one out in the fourth inning, Trea Turner lifted a fly ball into the gap between Tucker and center fielder Andy Pages. Both tracked it down, and either could have caught it. But at the last second, Pages pulled up to let Tucker make the catch, and Tucker hesitated before flailing after it.
The ball dropped in, and Turner jogged into second base. Though Wrobleski no longer had a chance at a perfect game, his no-hit bid was still intact.
The next inning, Wrobleski struck out the side. His eighth strikeout, against Marsh, was a career high.
But he wasn’t done.
Wrobleski recorded a ninth strikeout, for the second out of the sixth, before surrendering a hit.
It was the second time in as many games that the Dodgers had a no-hitter into the sixth inning — Shohei Ohtani did the same against the Rockies on Wednesday.
The low fastball Wrobleski threw to Kyle Schwarber in a 1-1 count caught too much of the plate. And Wrobleski nodded, as if in acceptance, before turning to watch the ball fly over the wall in center field for a solo homer.
“You kind of look at their reaction, and I knew he got it,” said Wrobleski, an Illinois native who rooted for Schwarber early in his career with the Cubs. “I’ve seen that 1,000 times. I grew up a Cubs fan … so I knew what it looks like when he hits a homer. And he got me today.”
That was the fifth home run of the game. All the others belonged to the Dodgers.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run in the third inning Friday against Philadelphia.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers had Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler’s number.
Wheeler, a three-time All-Star, had only given up one home run in his six other starts this season combined. But just seven pitches into his start, Freddie Freeman sliced an opposite-field shot down the left-field line.
The next inning, Max Muncy skied his own solo homer to right. Ohtani took his turn in the third, sending a laser into the visitor’s bullpen. Then Will Smith, the first right-handed hitter to homer Friday, added a solo shot in the fifth.
“Overall, he didn’t pitch that bad of a game tonight,” Muncy said of Wheeler, who gave up five hits in six innings. “We didn’t have a whole lot of traffic out there, but we took advantage of the few mistakes he made. It was big for us to do that.”
Wrobleski made even fewer mistakes.
“It’s just kind of felt like a little bit of a missing piece,” Wrobleski said of his velocity. “Just kind of something that I know I have in me, and it would make me better. And obviously tonight, I had that, and it made me better.”
Dodgers bring back Santiago Espinal 
The Dodgers re-signed utility player Santiago Espinal on Friday and optioned Hyeseong Kim to triple-A Oklahoma City.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers made a series of roster moves Friday, reconfiguring their bench after a wave of injuries.
They re-signed utility player Santiago Espinal, whose skill set was no longer redundant when Kiké Hernández returned to the injured list, this time with a strained left oblique.
“Obviously you don’t ever know how those things are going to play out,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said Friday. “So when he cleared [waivers] and then became a free agent, we had a couple guys go down right away. We reached back out to see if he would be interested in rejoining us. So luckily he was still in L.A. and that happened.”
In a corresponding move, the Dodgers optioned utility player Hyeseong Kim to triple-A Oklahoma City, giving him regular at-bats in a low-pressure environment to work on his swing. And they transferred left-hander Blake Snell (left elbow) to the 60-day injured list to clear room on the 40-man roster.
“I think [Kim’s] swing has changed,” Roberts said. “I think he’s losing his legs a little bit, he’s coming around the ball a little bit, there’s a lot more swing-and-miss than there was early. He is just playing, with my eyes, a little bit more tentative, and not as free and easy as he was in some parts of last year and early on.”
The Dodgers also put Teoscar Hernández (strained left hamstring) on the 10-day IL and recalled outfielder/first baseman Ryan Ward.
Hernández was diagnosed with a grade 1 strain, Roberts said, a less severe injury than expected. But the team does not have a timeline for his return.
Said Gomes: “Once he gets going, we’re hoping it’ll be a quick return, and we’ll try to get him some rehab at-bats. When that happened last year, we probably rushed it a bit on that front.”
Last year, Hernández played in just one rehab game returning from a strained groin.
In Hernández’s absence, Alex Call and Ward are expected to share time in left field in what Roberts said won’t be a “complete platoon.” The right-handed hitting Call started Friday against the right-handed Wheeler.
“Wheeler is just a really good pitcher,” Roberts said. “I want Alex to be in there and just feel that Alex can kind of manage him and take some good at-bats.”