Patrick Bailey flips his bat and Ben Rortvedt watches a walkout grand slam Friday night in San Francisco. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in baseball, and they won the World Series. But, a bounce here, a lucky break there, and they would have gone home from the playoffs early, and manager Dave Roberts may have been out of a job. Sometimes, it’s just your year. A bullpen game against the evenly-matched San Diego Padres, two timely home runs by two guys named Hernández, a walk-off home run for the ages, and a fifth inning that will never be forgotten in New York or Los Angeles, were what the Dodgers needed to win their eighth World Series title.
Over the off-season, the Dodgers accumulated a murders’ row of players, at times seemingly adding pitchers just for the heck of it. Their payroll ballooned well into the $350 million range, and prognosticators had them as potentially the best team ever. The regular season was but a formality, with another division title a foregone conclusion. But then baseball happened. And players got injured; and batters slumped; and pitchers failed. And then the Dodgers looked up on August 12th and found themselves in a tie for first place. It happened again on August 22nd and 24th. They then righted the ship, going up three games over the Padres, but they most certainly are not on solid ground.
It led many to believe that sometimes it’s just not your year.
Cut to Friday night. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, coming off the best pitching performance of his career – 8-2/3 no-hit innings before surrendering a solo home run to Jackson Holliday, which led to a colossal collapse and the worst loss of the year – gave up a double to third batter he faced after issuing a walk, and the Dodgers found themselves trailing 1-0. It would be the only hit Yamamoto gave up all night. He retired the next 20 batters, and left the game with the score tied at one. Once again, neither he nor the team would get the win.
In the fourth inning, the Dodgers got the first two runners on via a hit and a walk. A pop out and a ground out moved the runners into scoring position. Andy Pages then hit a sharp grounder to the left of Gold Glover Matt Chapman, who made a spectacular diving stop and great throw to first. The call on the field was “out,” and remained so after review. It took Pages not having the perfect stride and first baseman Dom Smith having the perfect stretch to deny the Dodgers what would have been the tying run, and which would have kept the inning going.
In the top of the fifth, Tommy Edman, looking for his first hit since coming off the IL, lined a 106 MPH scorcher to the left of Casey Schmitt at second base, who made a diving catch to keep Los Angeles from getting the leadoff batter aboard. Seven pitches later, the inning was over.
After the much-maligned Michael Conforto tied the game with a leadoff homer in the seventh, newly-acquired catcher Ben Rortvedt hit a ball off the top of the wall in left-centerfield for a two-out double. A few inches higher and the Dodgers take the lead. Giants pitcher Justin Verlander, who had just allowed four straight batters to hit the ball at least 97 MPH, intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani. And then Mookie Betts swung at the first pitch and lofted a soft flyball to right to end the threat and the inning.
In the eighth inning, Max Muncy, who in his previous at-bat got his first hit since coming off the IL with an oblique injury, which followed his being on the IL with a knee injury, got hit on the wrist by a 92 MPH sinker. He stayed in to the game to run the bases, but left when the team took the field to play defense. X-rays proved negative, and the club expects Muncy back in the lineup today, but who knows the impact of that hit by pitch. Muncy is the anchor of the lineup, especially in the absence of catcher Will Smith, who should be back from his hand injury shortly.
In the bottom of the ninth, Betts made his seventh error of the season, with a low throw to first. After a single and an intentional walk, the Dodgers avoided the loss when Wilmer Flores hit a short fly to center and pinch runner Grant McCray try to tag up and make it home. He was out by two steps, and onto extra innings we went.
McCray immediately made amends, throwing Rortvedt out on third when he attempted to tag up on Betts’ fly to right. Los Angeles failed to score.
In the bottom half of the tenth, after Blake Treinen got Chapman to ground to second, moving the Manfred Man to third, Roberts brought in Tanner Scott. Scott, who the Dodgers signed to a four-year, $72 million contract prior to the season, has been horrific. He has a 5.01 ERA, and has given up 10 home runs in 50 innings. In his last three appearances he has two blown saves and a loss. And yet, Scott looked good facing lefty Jung Hoo Lee. In fact, he struck him out on a wicked 3-2 slider. But – BUT – home plate umpire Bill Miller claimed that the ball hit the dirt (it clearly did not), and the play is not subject to challenge. The next 3-2 slider missed the zone. So instead of having two outs and a runner on third, the Giants now had runners on the corners with one out. The Dodgers elected to intentionally walk Schmitt to load the bases – thus allowing for a force at any base – for Patrick Bailey. Bailey, known for his catching prowess, had 5 homers and was slashing .220/.276/.325 when he came to the plate. So, what does he do? He hits a 97 MPH fastball that was above the strike zone 388 feet into the San Francisco night for a walk-off grand slam. Giants 5, Dodgers 1.
Sometimes it’s just not your year.
Do the Dodgers win that game last season? Who’s to say? What is clear is that they didn’t win that game last night. If you watch the Dodgers enough, you will see a pattern: when there is a 50-50 play, it goes against the world champs. None of this is to say that they won’t become the first team to repeat since the 1998-2000 Yankees, but if fate, fortune, or kismet have anything to say about it, I wouldn’t bet on the Boys in Blue this year.