SACRAMENTO — Dave Roberts made history before the Dodgers even finished putting the Athletics away Tuesday night at Sutter Health Park, and his team made sure the moment came wrapped in a comfortable win. Los Angeles jumped ahead early, let Tommy Edman do the heavy lifting all night, and cruised to a 9-3 victory that gave Roberts his 1,000th career win as a manager, the fastest anyone has reached that number in the modern era.
Roberts Makes History
The number will be the headline no matter what happened on the field, and it should be. Roberts became the fastest manager in modern baseball history to reach 1,000 wins, only the fourth manager in Dodgers history to hit the mark and the 69th in major league history overall. For a manager who has spent a decade in Los Angeles fielding questions about bullpen decisions and lineup construction, it is a number that speaks for itself. Fittingly, his team did not make him sweat for it.
Wrobleski Sets the Tone
Justin Wrobleski was the one who made sure the night stayed stress-free. He worked seven innings, struck out 11 and allowed just three runs on seven hits, missing bats all night against an Oakland lineup that had no answer for him. He improved to 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA, and the only real blemish came on Colby Thomas’s two-run homer in the seventh, a shot that briefly threatened to make things interesting before the Dodgers bullpen shut the door.
SACRAMENTO — Justin Wrobleski delivers during his seven-inning, 11-strikeout outing against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Credit: @dodgers
Edman Puts On a Show
If Roberts got the headline, Tommy Edman put together the performance of the night. He reached base four times, scored twice and drove in four runs, capped by his first homer of the season, a two-run shot in the third that turned a tight 2-1 game into a 5-1 laugher. He was not done. Edman added an RBI single in a decisive seventh inning that put the game away for good, giving him a four-hit, four-RBI night that will not show up in the box score headline but was every bit as important to the final result.
A Fast Start and a Seventh-Inning Blowup
Los Angeles got moving immediately. Freddie Freeman had a first-inning strikeout call overturned into a walk on a challenge, part of a two-run opening frame set up by Andy Pages and Mookie Betts singles. Oakland answered right back on Jonah Heim’s RBI single to make it 2-1, but that was as close as the Athletics would get for a long stretch. Miguel Rojas added a solo homer in the sixth, and then the seventh inning broke the game open completely. Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández started it with a double and a walk, Edman drove one in, two wild pitches from Oakland reliever Geoff Hartlieb pushed runners around, and Rojas and Dalton Rushing each added RBI knocks to turn a 6-1 game into a 9-1 rout in the span of a few minutes.
A’s Answer Late, but Too Late
Oakland did not go quietly. Colby Thomas turned around a Wrobleski pitch for a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to cut the deficit to 9-3, and for a moment it looked like the Athletics might make a real push. But Brock Stewart and Wyatt Mills combined to shut the door over the final two innings, retiring six of the seven batters they faced and stranding what little momentum Oakland had built.
Up Next
The Dodgers will hand the ball to the bullpen Wednesday to close out the series finale against the A’s at Sutter Health Park. Shohei Ohtani, originally lined up to start that game, has been pushed back and will instead start Friday night at home against the Padres to open a new series. Los Angeles will look to take the series in Sacramento before returning to Los Angeles riding a fresh milestone for its manager and a lineup that just would not stop hitting.