Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Well, now. Everybody got their money’s worth with this one, didn’t they? In a crazy game of highs and lows, the Dodgers came back from a four-run deficit, thanks to a wild eighth inning rally filled with walks, balks, and weird ground-rule doubles. In fact, the winning run was scored when Astros* reliever Ryan Stanek got called for a balk with a runner on third, allowing the Dodgers to go up 8-7, a score that would hold up for the rest of the game. This game had basically three movements. Let’s recount them, shall we?
Part One: Dodgers jump out to an early lead
This was the shortest part of the game, lasting just one inning. After starter Bobby Miller pitched a nice 1-2-3 top of the first, the Dodgers pounced all over Houston righty Ronel Blanco. Mookie Betts very nearly hit another lead-off homer, but got robbed at the fence on a great play by Corey Julks. However, a bit later in the inning, Will Smith hit a solo shot to deep left, and Jason Heyward ripped a two-run job to right to stake the Dodgers to a 3-0 after one frame of baseball.
Part Two: Miller get shelled
Bobby Miller, flying so high after his first three starts, has come down to earth with a resounding thud. Miller managed to pitch three decent innings to start the game and gave up only one run, but it was pretty obvious that the Astros* were starting to time up his heater. The second time through the lineup was basically a disaster. An Alex Bregman grand slam was part of a five-run fifth, and the cheaters were able to add another run in the 6th on a sacrifice fly off of new Dodger Ryan Brasier. So, the Dodgers found themselves in a 7-3 hole going into the final innings of the ballgame.
Part Three: The Wild Comeback
The Dodgers could have cashed in their chips on this one, but they somehow managed to crawl their way back into the ballgame. It started with a clutch two-run pinch hit homer from David Peralta in the bottom of the 7th that drew the Dodgers into bloop-and-blast territory, now trailing 7-5. Phil Bickford pitched a couple of clutch innings on his return from the IL, so the score stayed right there until the bottom of the eighth, when the Dodgers staged one of the more improbable comebacks this side of Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner.
The inning started with a new Astros* pitcher, Bryan Abreu, who quickly issued three straight walks: to Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and J.D. Martinez. A drive to left from Jason Heyward might have dropped for a hit, but Kyle Tucker‘s sliding catch made it only a sacrifice fly, scoring the Dodgers seventh run and sending Will Smith to third. This brought to the plate James Outman, who has been looking much better at the plate lately after a nearly month-long funk.
Outman got ahead in the count and was able to sit on an Abreu off-speed pitch, which he absolutely pulverized to deep right field. At first, it seemed that Outman had hit a home run, but in fact, the ball had lodged in the base of the fence, right about the same spot where Aaron Judge had plowed through the wall when the Yankees came to town. Though pinch runner Johnny De Luca would have scored easily on the play, he had to return to third as Outman was only awarded a ground rule double on the play.
With two runners in scoring position, Dusty Baker made a pitching change, bringing in veteran reliever Ryan Stanek to face the final two hitters in the Dodgers batting order. Stanek struck out David Peralta on a nice breaking ball, and it was up to the 9-hole hitter, Miguel Rojas to try to push across the winning run.
He didn’t have to. In the middle of the at-bat, second base umpire Junior Valentine called a balk on Stanek, when he twitched his knee before stepping off the rubber. Yep, Houston, you have a problem. That was a balk, much as Stanek may have argued to the contrary. That brought on all kinds of fury from the fiery Stanek, which included an ejection after the inning finally ended. But sorry, Ryan. You blew it, and your team was now behind.
Clinging to an 8-7 lead, the Dodgers turned to trusty Evan Phillips to finish off the game. Things looked a little touch and go when Kyle Tucker hit a lead-off single, but a nifty 1-4-3 double play erased the baserunner and effectively ended Houston’s chances for the day. A harmless flyball ended the game, and the Dodgers had just won their fourth straight game.
However, after the game, all the talk was about that balk. “He got it right,” manager Dave Roberts said of the umpire. “Obviously in a game like that, you don’t want it to be the deciding run in that situation. But they got the call right. And I think Stanek was looking at the pitch clock maybe, maybe trying to step off, call time out, and then his cleat got stuck. But it was a balk by the letter of the law. We’ll take it.”
The way I see it, it was just the Baseball Gods righting the situation, as that run should have scored on the Outman double anyway had it not been for the weird fencing in right field. Baseball giveth, Baseball taketh away.
And with the hot Giants’ win over the D-backs the division gets even closer at the top. Just two games separate the top three teams now. Given the struggles of the first half, the Dodgers should consider themselves lucky to be in such a spot. The good guys go for the sweep of the Astros* on Sunday night baseball, throwing Tony Gonsolin at the Houston batters. Gonsolin is coming off the worst start of his career last Sunday, so he is sure to be looking to get back on the beam in this one. Game Time: 4:10 pm. Let’s get out those brooms!
