ANAHEIM -- A regular contributor and a new face played huge roles in a much-needed win for the Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon.
Right-hander Hunter Dobbins tossed six scoreless innings and JJ Wetherholt's solo home run carried the Cardinals to a 1-0 win over the Angels at Angel Stadium to snap a four-game losing streak to end their road trip.
“You always wanna win, especially after some of those tough losses,” Wetherholt said. "So for us to just play clean ball today, pitchers did a great job of keeping us in the game. Obviously, Dobbins was a great start, but it was big for us to get a win.”
Dobbins has been back and forth between the Cardinals and Triple-A Memphis this season with only three starts and two appearances out of the bullpen with the big league club. He was recalled for Wednesday’s game to push everyone in the rotation back a day with the Cardinals’ makeup game against the Diamondbacks.
Wednesday marked Dobbins’ best start in the Majors this season. He allowed six hits, struck out five and walked no one across his six scoreless frames.
One of the keys to Dobbins’ success was his sweeper. It generated a 44% whiff rate and Angels’ hitters only put it in play five times out of 18 swings. He also landed it for a first-pitch strike three out of four times.
“The sweeper, velocity was up on it a little bit today, and we're putting it in a good spot,” Dobbins said. “Good game plan with Jimmy [Crooks], and we just kind of leaned on it.”
First-pitch strikes were another feather in Dobbins’ cap on Wednesday, getting a first-pitch strike at a 67% clip.
“He was on the attack, which is a big part of it,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Made them earn everything. Didn't allow a walk, which was helpful. And even when he fell behind, he did a really nice job of getting back in the counts and then kind of locating. Got to two strikes often and pitched to chase locations. Did a nice job with that as well.”
Offensively, the Cardinals’ bats remained quiet once again. But thanks to the pitching staff, the lineup only required one big swing.
In the top of the fifth, Wetherholt took a fastball from left-hander Reid Detmers at the top of the strike zone and sent it over the fence in center for the game’s lone run.
It was the National League Rookie of the Year frontrunner’s 15th blast of the season, and fourth against a left-hander. Wetherholt is now hitting .259 against left-handers this year, when the league is hitting .235 in left-on-left matchups.
“He doesn't try to do too much,” Marmol said of Wetherholt. “He stays within himself. He understands when to try to slug and when to just be a hitter.”
Wetherholt believes he stays through the ball better against left-handers, which is something that has always been the case for him.
“I think I've always just wanted to be a complete hitter,” Wetherholt said. “So, [I] just always try to do my work to try to figure out how I can battle against those lefties and get to the big leagues. Lefties are there to get lefties out. So for me, it's just kind of an opportunity to try to figure out how to hit them. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to show that I can hang with them, but always just trying to improve.”