Steve Webb
Game 4, 3/28/2025: Dodgers 8, Tigers 5
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — THAT. WAS. A. GREAT. GAME. In a see-saw affair, the Dodgers and the Tigers locked in an early season classic on Friday night. After falling behind by two runs on two separate occasions, the Dodgers got clutch performances from the top of the lineup, and won in the tenth inning by a score of 8-5 thanks to a thrilling walkoff homer from Mookie Betts.
The contest looked like a good pitching matchup on paper, and for the first five innings, it did not disappoint. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had the swing-and-miss stuff working, striking out a career-high ten batters. However, he also gave up up a couple of solo shots and exited the game on the wrong end of a 0-2 score. It wasn’t nearly as sharp a performance as his season debut in Tokyo, but it was plenty good: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K.
On the other side of the scorecard, former Dodger Jack Flaherty got the ball, and to be honest, looked better than Yoshi on this night. For five innings of scoreless ball, he was practically unhittable wtih the Dodgers just managing one hit during that stretch. Then, in the 6th, his former World Series buddies Mookie and Freddie struck back. Betts hit a wounded duck that landed in centerfield for a single, and then Freddie squared up the first pitch he saw and deposited it among the paying customers in left center. Tie ball game.
There the score stayed for the next two innings. Anthony Banda and Kirby Yates looked great in relief of Yamamoto. Alex Vesia got two quick outs in the eighth before loading up the bases, only to escape on a clutch strikeout of Dillon Dingler.
That sent the game into the bottom of the eighth, where the Dodgers faced off against Will Vest, one of the best arms out of the Tiger pen. Vest got two quick outs, but then Mookie Betts pounced on his first offering, hitting a barely-there homer to left that just did survive umpire review. Leading 3-2, the Dodgers headed into the ninth with a chance to win their fourth straight of 2025.
Tanner Scott got the call out of the pen, and for the second straight night, didn’t have his best stuff. He gave up a single on the first pitch of the inning, and then the Tigers managed to tie the ballgame on a two-out single from Manuel Margot. The inning almost turned into disaster on the next hitter as Riley Greene ripped a double into the corner that Margot ALMOST scored on, but thanks to a great relay from Tommy Edman to Austin Barnes, Margot was declared out on review.
The Dodgers went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, and for the first time this season, we had bonus baseball. Luis Garcia came in to pitch the tenth, but couldn’t quite get the Dodgers back into the dugout without damage. With two outs, Dillon Dingler hit a triple that just evaded left fielder Michael Conforto‘s glove, scoring two runners. The Dodgers got out of the inning with no further damage, but they were chasing two runs going into the bottom of the tenth.
The inning got off to a great start when Conforto’s ground-rule double scored the gifted runner to narrow the gap to 5-4. After Andy Pages grounded out, pinch hitter Will Smith came through with a clutch single past the diving third baseman to score the tying run. Woo!
Next up, Shohei Ohtani drilled a single to right that pushed Smith to third base. With Mookie Betts at the plate, Ohtani stole second on the first pitch, putting men and second and third with just one out. Betts worked a full count on pitcher Beau Brieske. Then, Mookie got the pitch he wanted–a changeup at the knees.
KAPOW!
Yep, Mookie Betts, the dude who couldn’t hold down solid food a couple days ago, drilled his SECOND homer of the night, a shot to left field. Game Over. Dodgers win. That was awesome.
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