Justin Wrobleski threw six shutout innings in a bulk role out of the bullpen, while Enrique Hernandez and Will Smith each homered as the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 on Sunday.
After opener Lou Trivino allowed a run on the first two Kansas City batters of the game, Wrobleski (4-2) came on in the second inning and yielded three hits with a walk and struck out six until Kirby Yates took over in the eighth.
Hernandez’s two-run homer in the second put the Dodgers ahead for good and paved the way for a sixth consecutive winning series.
After pounding out 14 hits during Saturday’s 9-5 win that snapped their 11-game home losing streak, the Royals wasted no time staying hot at the plate. Jonathan India opened the bottom of the first with a single off Trivino, then went to second on a wild pitch. Shortly after, Bobby Witt Jr. doubled off the left field wall for a 1-0 Kansas City lead.
However, that was all the offense the Royals could muster while totaling just five hits and striking out 10 times against four Dodgers pitchers Sunday.
Kris Bubic (6-6) allowed two runs, two walks and three hits and fanned five while laboring through 90 pitches over five innings for Kansas City, which has dropped seven of the last eight overall and went 1-12 at home in the month of June.
The Dodgers made Bubic work early on, as he threw 56 pitches through the first two innings. In the second, Andy Pages (two hits) singled and eventually scored on Hernandez’s homer over the left-center-field wall that put Los Angeles ahead 2-1.
The visitors added another run when Smith barely cleared the center field wall against Steven Cruz in the sixth. Los Angeles plated two more in the seventh via an RBI double from Max Muncy and Miguel Rojas’ run-scoring single.
Los Angeles has won 12 of the last 15.
The start of this contest was delayed a little more than an hour due to rain.
–Field Level Media
