PHOENIX, AZ — The Dodgers finally stopped their seven-game losing streak Saturday night. They weren’t able to build on it.
Justin Wrobleski put Los Angeles in an immediate hole Sunday afternoon, and an offense that has spent most of the past week struggling to produce couldn’t dig its way out in a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The defeat completed a miserable 1-5 road trip and sent the Dodgers home with plenty to fix. Wrobleski allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits and three walks over just 3 1/3 innings. He needed 76 pitches to record 10 outs and surrendered all four Arizona runs before the Dodgers’ bullpen completely shut the Diamondbacks down.
By then, the damage had been done.
Wrobleski Falls Behind Early
Wrobleski’s afternoon started going sideways almost immediately. He walked Geraldo Perdomo to begin the bottom of the first. Although he recovered to strike out Corbin Carroll and got Gabriel Moreno on a force play, Ketel Marte followed with a two-run homer to left.
Just like that, the Dodgers were down 2-0.
Things got worse in the second. Tyler Locklear opened with a double before Ryan Waldschmidt dropped down a sacrifice bunt. Wrobleski fielded it but made a throwing error, allowing Locklear to score and Waldschmidt to reach second. The Dodgers managed to cut down Waldschmidt at home later in the inning, but Moreno doubled home Carroll with two outs to make it 4-0.
For an offense currently struggling to score at all, a four-run deficit felt considerably larger. Wrobleski did settle down somewhat, but another walk and single in the fourth convinced Dave Roberts to make the change.
It continued a rough stretch for the young left-hander after what had been an excellent season for much of the year. Wrobleski has shown he can give the Dodgers quality innings, but lately the mistakes have been coming too frequently and doing too much damage.
Sunday, the Dodgers never recovered from them.
Offense Remains Stuck
The Dodgers had opportunities, but not many. Kiké Hernández and Ben Rortvedt singled with one out in the third before Andy Pages doubled home Hernández, cutting the deficit to 4-1. Freddie Freeman singled to begin the sixth, and with two outs Kyle Tucker lined a triple into right to bring him home.
That made it 4-2. It also represented the last serious offensive threat of the afternoon.
Teoscar Hernández struck out to strand Tucker at third, and the Dodgers managed only one baserunner over the final three innings. Freddie Freeman erased that runner by grounding into a double play in the eighth.
The ninth was especially bleak. Mookie Betts struck out, Tucker flew out and pinch-hitter Max Muncy struck out to end it.
Los Angeles finished with six hits, went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and struck out 11 times. Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, Betts went 0-for-3 and Teoscar Hernández struck out in all three of his plate appearances.
The larger problem is becoming impossible to ignore. The Dodgers scored only seven runs during the entire three-game series in Arizona. Saturday’s 2-1 victory required 10 innings. Friday’s three runs weren’t enough to prevent a walk-off loss. Sunday, two runs were never going to overcome the early damage.
The pitching hasn’t been perfect during this stretch, but the offense isn’t giving it much room to breathe.
Bullpen Gives Them a Chance
One encouraging part of Sunday’s loss was what happened after Wrobleski left. Edgardo Henriquez stranded two inherited runners to finish the fourth. Evan Phillips struck out two in a perfect fifth. Kyle Hurt worked a clean sixth. Jonathan Hernández then retired all six hitters he faced over the final two innings. Arizona didn’t record a hit after Wrobleski left.
That gave the Dodgers more than five innings to erase a three-run deficit.
They managed one run. And that’s essentially the story of where this team is right now.
A Road Trip to Forget
Los Angeles heads home after going 1-5 on a road trip that began badly and somehow kept getting worse. There were ugly starting pitching performances. There were bullpen failures. There were defensive mistakes. There was a seven-game losing streak. And throughout almost all of it, there was an offense that simply couldn’t generate enough consistent pressure.
Saturday’s extra-inning victory at least prevented the Dodgers from returning home on an eight-game slide. But one win doesn’t make this road trip look much better.
A 1-5 trip is a 1-5 trip. The Dodgers now have to hope a change of scenery, along with some major help for the rotation, can change their fortunes.
Tarik Skubal is scheduled to make his Dodger Stadium debut Monday, giving Los Angeles another look at its newest frontline starter. Then comes another potentially significant development Tuesday, when Blake Snell is expected to return from the injured list.
If there was ever a time for two elite starting pitchers to provide some stability, this would be it. But Skubal and Snell can only do so much.
Sooner or later, somebody needs to light a fire under these guys…
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A lifelong baseball fan, Webb has been going to Dodger games since he moved to Los Angeles in 1987. His favorite memory was attending the insane Game 3 of the World Series in 2025 and hugging random Dodgers fans after Freddie’s walkoff homer. He has been writing for Dodgersbeat since 2020.
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