Mookie Betts swears he didn’t imply to have a look at the scoreboard Sunday afternoon.
However when he did, it crystalized the pressing scenario the Dodgers discovered themselves in.
Late in Sunday’s sport towards the lowly Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers had been trailing and at risk of dropping two of three to the Nationwide League West’s worst staff.
In the meantime, the NL West’s second-place staff, the San Diego Padres, had been within the strategy of finishing a sequence sweep over the traditionally dangerous Chicago White Sox, a end result that caught Betts’ eye on the out-of-town scoreboard alongside the right-field wall.
“I didn’t mean to look at it,” Betts stated. “But they won. And we needed to win a game there.”
So, win a sport Betts and the Dodgers did.
After trailing by 4 runs coming into the seventh, and one run coming into the ninth, the Dodgers side-stepped catastrophe and inched nearer to an NL West division title, with Shohei Ohtani and Betts hitting back-to-back residence runs within the ninth inning for a walk-off 6-5 win at Dodger Stadium.
Had the Dodgers misplaced, their division lead would have been in peril, trimmed to 2 video games with the Padres coming to city for a monumental three-game set at Chavez Ravine this week.
Now, nevertheless, the Dodgers have some respiration room. They’re nonetheless three video games up on the Padres within the standings. Their magic quantity to clinch the division is all the way down to 4. And until they get swept this week, a division title — and, much more importantly, a probable first-round bye within the playoffs — seems to be inside their grasp.
Mookie Betts celebrates his walkoff residence run within the ninth inning towards Colorado on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
“That,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated, “felt like two wins,”
For a lot of the afternoon, Sunday was shaping as much as really feel like two losses for the Dodgers.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto struggled by a four-run, three-inning begin, failing to command the ball (three walks) or restrict contact (4 hits) in a begin that fell properly wanting the six-inning goal Roberts had set pregame.
“It’s all about my mechanics,” Yamamoto stated by interpreter Yoshihiru Sonoda. “My mechanics were off and the speed of my motion were a little off. That’s something that I have to make some adjustments to.”
The Dodgers’ offense, in the meantime, squandered a flurry of early alternatives, leaving 11 of their 13 baserunners stranded (thanks largely to double-plays in every of the primary three innings) whereas going only one for 9 with runners in scoring place.
“It wasn’t pretty early,” Roberts stated. “We had some opportunities. The ground ball double-plays certainly killed some rallies.”
To make issues worse, the outfield scoreboard relayed what was occurring in San Diego, the place the Padres — who’ve already clinched a head-to-head tiebreaker towards the Dodgers this 12 months — erased a late deficit towards the White Sox to safe their fourth straight victory.
“They’ve had their way with us up to this point,” Roberts stated of the Padres, who’ve gained seven of 10 video games towards the Dodgers this 12 months. “To lose a series [to the Rockies], it would have been tough, just mentally feeling a little bit like you’re on your heels.”
However then, the Dodgers discovered life.
Kiké Hernández, who was a late addition to Sunday’s lineup after third baseman Max Muncy was scratched due to aspect soreness (he’s anticipated to be again within the lineup Tuesday), began the comeback with a two-run homer within the seventh inning, trimming a 5-1 deficit in half.
Freddie Freeman, who entered the day batting simply .214 over the past two weeks and recorded two of the sport’s early double-plays, cashed Ohtani’s steal of second base (his second of the day and fifty fifth of the season) later within the inning with an RBI single, making it 5-4.
“I think Freddie getting the base hit to score a run, that sort of energized us,” Roberts stated. “You know, Freddie’s been trying to find his way. And we do go with him as far as his emotion. And when he’s more downtrodden, it seems like everyone sort of follows suit. But when he’s chipper and going, that energy resonates with everyone else.”
With the assistance of a six-inning effort from the bullpen, together with three innings of one-run ball from rookie Ben Casparius, that set the stage for the underside of the ninth.
Ohtani led off with a line-drive rocket to proper discipline, finishing a four-hit efficiency together with his 53rd, and maybe most essential, residence run of the season. In his final 4 video games, the MVP frontrunner is now 14 for 18 with 5 residence runs, six stolen bases and 13 RBIs, pushing his batting common on the 12 months again over .300.
“I really haven’t seen a player as locked in like Shohei is, for as long as he’s been, in quite some time,” Roberts stated of Ohtani, who declined to talk with reporters postgame. “Just huge hits, huge homers.”
Shohei Ohtani hits his 53rd residence run of the season within the eighth inning towards the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
Three pitches later, Betts accomplished the comeback, launching a two-strike, 100.6 mph sinker from Seth Halvorsen into the left-field pavilion for his second profession walk-off residence run, and first with the Dodgers.
“Shohei starts it off with a homer there to give us some energy,” Betts stated. “And fortunately I was able to put a good swing on it.”
Relying on how the following (and remaining) week of the common season goes, the Dodgers may wind up with one of the best document in baseball, strolling off the sector Sunday with a half-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies (who performed the late sport Sunday).
Nonetheless, they should clinch the division — and, given their pitching woes, a bye by the best-of-three wild card spherical — first.
“Certainly, where we’re at, it’d be helpful,” Roberts stated pregame of the significance of these duties. “It’s in our own hands. So that would be certainly welcomed, and it’s something that we still got to earn. We still got some work to do.”
Due to Sunday’s late-game theatrics, that work received just a little simpler coming into the season’s remaining week.
“Man, what an inning,” Roberts stated, huffing a sigh of pleasure and reduction. “It just gives us such a good feeling going into an off day, [ahead] of a huge series.”
Gonsolin’s subsequent step
A day after pitching three scoreless innings in his third minor-league rehab outing this month, Tony Gonsolin stays a possible possibility for the Dodgers’ postseason pitching workers, supervisor Dave Roberts stated, although the staff will look forward to Gonsolin to throw a bullpen session subsequent week earlier than deciding what’s subsequent for the right-hander.
Gonsolin is making an attempt to make a shock return from the Tommy John surgical procedure he underwent late final season; an operation that was initially anticipated to maintain him out till the 2025 season.
In his three triple-A rehab begins this month, Gonsolin had a 2.35 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 7 ⅔ innings. Throughout Saturday’s outing, he averaged slightly below 92 mph together with his fastball (and topped out at 94.3 mph), whereas getting whiffs on all 5 swings towards his slider, changeup and splitter.
In a best-case situation, Gonsolin might be activated to pitch for the Dodgers in subsequent weekend’s remaining regular-season sequence in Colorado — although, Roberts stated that’s not a requirement for him to be thought of for a postseason roster spot.
“He has postseason experience,” Roberts stated of Gonsolin, who may assist the Dodgers as a starter or multi-inning reliever. “For us, to continue to move forward with his progression is most important. And then we’ll just see where he’s at, where we’re at.”
