The Agony and the Ecstasy: Dodgers turn game on its head with 5-run 8th and come back to win!

LOS ANGELES — To quote the noted philosopher Harry Caray, “Holy Cow!” That was one of the most remarkable games in Dodgers’ history. Down 9-5 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers got up off the mat and battered Padres pitching for home run after home run after glorious home run. When Corey Seager‘s two-run bomb went over the right field seats with two out in the bottom of the eighth, it completed a most improbable comeback, putting the Dodgers up for good 11-9. And, after a dominant save from Kenley Jansen, the Dodger faithful headed to the parking lot having witnessed something near a miracle. No wonder we love this game!

Dodgers up early, but Scherzer shaky

About three and a half hours earlier, when this epic game began, it looked like the Dodgers would coast to an easy win. They scored four times in the home half of the first, and added another in the second to put a five-spot on the board very quickly. The key hit in the hijacking of Padres starter Ryan Weathers was a two-run shot in the first from AJ Pollock.

Usually when you stake Max Scherzer to a big lead, you can just sit back and let Max lead you to victory. But not on this night. He just didn’t have the command that we’ve been used to seeing from the guy. He gave up a solo home run to Victor Caratini in the second inning and then a two run shot in the third from Manny Machado. In the fifth, he was totally let down by his defense when the infield committed two errors on relatively easy balls, allowing three more runs to come across.

It just wasn’t Max’s night. He left the game in the sixth, having surrendered the lead on a Wil Myers double to deep centerfield. Gavin Lux seemed to have the ball tracked, but he couldn’t squeeze the glove shut before he rammed into the wall. The ball popped out and slow-moving Victor Caratani lumbered all the way around the bags from first to score. The impact with the wall shook Lux up to the point where he had to be removed from the game. Cody Bellinger took his spot, and it would be a couple more innings before we would learn what a huge substitution that would end up being. The final line on Scherzer for the night: 5.1 IP, 11 H (eek!), 5 ER, 4 K.

Bazooka blows up in seventh

Justin Bruihl got Scherzer out of the sixth with no further damages, so it was up to the pen to keep it close enough for the Dodgers to come back. Which is exactly what they did NOT do. After Bruihl’s nice outing, Brusdar Graterol came in for the seventh, and was wild and ineffective. Before he left, having retired nobody, three Padres had come across home plate and the score was now 9-5.

Phil Bickford came in and cleaned up Graterol’s mess, but the blow was nearly lethal. Trailing by four going into the bottom of the seventh. And meanwhile, the Giants’ score went final, and everyone at the Stadium could see that the Dodgers’ NL West hopes hung by a thread at this point. Things looked very grim indeed.

Mookie starts the comeback in the seventh

Staring a three-game deficit in the face, the Dodgers knew that they just HAD TO come back in this one. They got a shot in the arm almost immediately when Mookie Betts led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot to cut the deficit to three. Betts took a 2-0 four-seamer from reliever Daniel Hudson over the left field fence, and a little bit of pulse started to appear on the Dodgers’ EKG.

Bam!

The eighth inning for the Dodgers’ was one of those innings that was for the ages. Emilio Pagan came out of the Padres’ pen to try to hold the three-run lead. The Dodger Stadium crowd had thinned a bit after the Graterol disaster, but those that hung around were on their feet, trying to will the Dodgers’ back into the game, and back into the pennant race. Things started off promisingly enough. Max Muncy mashed a ball into the crowd in the right field pavilion to cut the lead to 9-7.

Bam!

Just maybe, thought the fans we can get a bloop and a blast somewhere in here and tie this thing up. The next hitter, AJ Pollock, came up to the plate already with a home run under his belt for the night. But AJ wasn’t done. He went oppo taco on a 2-2 pitch and suddenly and improbably it was now 9-8. Hey! Grab another beer, Mabel, this is getting interesting!

Bam!

Chris Taylor gave one a ride, but Trent Grisham camped under it in center for the first out of the inning. Then, inexplicably Jayce Tingler left the righty Pagan in, even though he had faced the minimum of three hitters and had gotten rocked by each one. Plus, he was going to face Cody Bellinger, who hits right-handed pitching approximately a million times better than he hits lefties. Nevertheless, Tingler sat motionless in the dugout as Pagan toed the rubber and Belli stepped into the box. The 2019 MVP swung and missed at a cutter for strike one, but Pagan decided to give him the high cheese for the second pitch. It wasn’t a bad idea, Bellinger had struggled mightily with the heater this year.

But not tonight. Bellinger pulverized a 96-mph four-seamer and sent it deep into the night for a game tying home run. It had to have ranked among the most satisfying blasts of Bellinger’s career. After a season of disappointment and struggle, he had come through for his team when it matter the most.

Bam!

Because Tingler was busy updating his resume, he still left Pagan in the game for one more hitter. Justin Turner was nearly as rude to him as everybody else had been, cracking a solid double to left. Suddenly, in a game that had seemed lost not thirty minutes earlier, the go-ahead run was in scoring position.

Tingler finally roused himself from his stupor and brought in off-speed specialist Nabil Crismatt to face Corey Seager. In so doing, he made a double switch, bringing MVP-candidate Fernando Tatis Jr. off the bench to take the pitcher’s spot in the lineup. Seager offered at the first pitch, but was ahead of the changeup and whiffed for strike one. Then, Crismatt threw two more changeups and a sinker that all missed to get Seager into a hitter’s count at 3-1. Sure enough, he got another changeup from Crismatt, and this time he had the pitch measured perfectly.

Crack! Seager’s bat made solid contact with the pitch. It flew to deep right field. The only question was did it have enough distance? It did! The ball landed a couple of rows deep for an absolutely glorious two-run go-ahead homer. Though they could barely believe it themselves, the Dodgers were now ahead by a score of 11-9.

Kenley breathing fire in the ninth

The Dodgers took the field in the top of the ninth, and looked to Kenley Jansen to shut things down for the win. Late inning replacement Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the inning. Strike one! Strike two! Strike three! Sit down, little man. Then it was Trent Grishman’s turn. He managed to get a ball from Kenley mixed in there before he had his three strikes and went moping back to the bat rack. Finally, it was former Astro* Jake Marisnick who was the Padres’ last hope. Strike one! Strike Two! Strike Three! Game over!

Wooboy!

I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The Dodgers’ had done it. Take that, those of you who say the team lacks heart, lacks grit. We’re still in this thing. Two games out, four games to go. Let’s do this!