Over nine innings on Tuesday night, the Dodgers They played with their food at Angel Stadium.
Only in extra innings, thanks to a four-run rally fueled by Mookie Betts‘three-run homer, did they finally assert their dominance over last place? Angels.
In the first of two Freeway Series games this week, the Dodgers won 6-2 in front of a crowd of 44,731 in Anaheim, a split between Angels fans and a raucous contingent of visiting Dodgers fans, all there to witness Shohei OhtaniThe return of ‘s to its old stadium.
“The most important thing is to win the game and I’m glad we won,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after the game. “The most important thing about all of this is being able to play in this stadium and in front of these fans. That’s the part that was special for me.”
Ohtani provided some fireworks in the third inning, hitting an RBI triple to the right-field corner and scoring on Betts’ RBI single.
After that, though, the Dodgers went silent, striking out 16 times in all (including 10 against Reid Detmers, the Angels starter who entered with an ERA over 6.00) before finally breaking a 2-2 tie in the top of the 10th inning.
Miguel Rojas started the scoring in extra innings, connecting on a first-pitch sinker to left field for an RBI single.
Then, after Ohtani was intentionally walked with first base open, Betts delivered the knockout blow, crushing a first-pitch slider to left for his 15th homer of the season.
“I understand his perspective,” Betts said of Ohtani, who was left on the path in front of him. “So he was just trying to get a good pitch to hit.”
It was only the third time in Betts’ career that the batter ahead of him walked. The other two? Free passes to David Ortiz in 2016, according to SportsNet LA, when Betts was with the Boston Red Sox.
“It’s tough to let go of a guy who made $700 (million) and hand over to a guy who made $350 (million),” starting pitcher Walker Buehler joked of Ohtani and Betts. “He’s pretty good at baseball, too.”
The late scoring barrage erased the Dodgers’ barrage of empty swings earlier in the game as his season-high 16 strikeouts extinguished a lineup that came in red-hot after winning last weekend’s series in Arizona.
Detmers, making his first major league start since June 1 after being called up from Triple-A, kept the Dodgers off balance with an improved fastball that reached 95 mph, rekindling concerns about the club’s sometimes anemic ability to attack velocity this season.
The club didn’t fare much better against the Angels’ bullpen, either, giving up a walk by Chris Taylor in the eighth inning before being overtaken by Angels closer Ben Joyce — who hit a season-high 105.5 mph with his fastball — in the ninth.
In the end, though, it all mattered little as the Dodgers’ 10th-inning comeback extended their lead in the NL West to 5 ½ games with just 23 games left this season.
“If you look back over the last two weeks, we’ve played some intense baseball games,” said manager Dave Roberts, with his team 18-6 since Aug. 9. “So tonight against a team that’s trying to fight back and play good baseball, some young players, it’s a game you don’t want to let down.”
In his first regular-season game in Anaheim since signing with the Dodgers this winter, Ohtani drew all the early attention.
His first visit to the plate generated only a muted response from a crowd that kept coming — and from Ohtani himself, who didn’t even remove his helmet as a graphic listing his Angels’ accomplishments quickly appeared on the scoreboard.
After grounding out in that opening at-bat, Ohtani’s second at-bat drew a bigger response, as he lined out to right field for his seventh triple of the year.
“When you look at today’s game, there were times where we couldn’t get ahead,” Ohtani said. “But there were times where we were able to capitalize and that’s the way we try to win some games. I think it’s a really good thing for us as a team that we were able to do that tonight.”
And as for Betts’ big explosion in the 10th?
“I’m not surprised Mookie had that performance,” Ohtani said. “It’s the kind of way we like to finish the game.”
The other positive sign for the Dodgers on Tuesday: Buehler’s performance in a five-inning, two-run, six-strikeout start, the second straight in which the 30-year-old right-hander said he felt more like his old self returning from a second career Tommy John surgery.
Much like last week, Buehler was most efficient early in counts (12 of 21 first-pitch strikes) and was particularly effective with the curveball, which accounted for four of his six strikeouts in an 83-pitch outing.
“I think Walker is in competition mode right now,” Roberts said. “I think that’s important, when you’re in September (and) you’ve got a few starts left until we get to the postseason, and he’s trying to find some traction and get back to being the pitcher that he was.”
Buehler allowed two homers. Logan O’Hoppe hit a 2-2 cutter that stayed too close to the plate in the second inning. Taylor Ward hit a drive just inside the right-field foul pole the other way in the fifth.
But for a pitcher trying to assert his place in the Dodgers’ postseason rotation plans, Buehler viewed the departure as another important step forward, lowering his ERA to 5.67 (his lowest since mid-June) in the process.
“I would have loved to feel like this in April,” said Buehler, who has already made four starts since returning from a hip injury last month. “But at the end of the day, I have a month to put the finishing touches on how I feel as a big league starter and how I can help us win in the playoffs.”
It’s not yet known exactly how the Dodgers’ pitchers will fare once they reach the majors. Yoshinobu Yamamoto only managed to pitch two innings in a rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday night (which likely means he’ll need one more rehab outing before returning to the majors). Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw played catch before the game as they recover from elbow and toe injuries, respectively.
The one thing that is increasingly certain, however, is the Dodgers’ place in the postseason picture.
For a moment on Tuesday, they appeared to be heading toward the disappointment Roberts warned about.
But, as is now customary lately, they still found a way to salvage an important victory.
“It’s always important to keep momentum,” Betts said. “Sometimes the momentum isn’t going to be in your favor. You’re going to have to find ways to create it. But in any case, just keep going.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
