Dodgers Recap: LA Takes a Wild One in the Desert

PHOENIX — Magic number: one. The Dodgers took fans on another roller coaster in the desert and somehow stepped off with a 5–4 win in 11 innings at Chase Field, trimming the NL West clinch countdown to a single game. THIS ONE WAS WILD—equal parts familiar script and fresh plot twists—and it ended with the kind of contributions October teams need from every corner of the roster.

The familiar part first. Blake Snell didn’t have his nastiest stuff, but he did exactly what the Dodgers needed: a quality start. Six innings, five hits, one run, one walk, five strikeouts—workmanlike, composed, and sturdy enough to hand off a lead. He bent early when Ketel Marte opened the night with a double and scored on a sac fly, but Snell settled in, induced soft contact, and even navigated Corbin Carroll’s havoc (two steals in the first) without a big inning. It wasn’t dominant; it was dependable. In late September, that’s gold.

The offense spotted him a cushion in layers. Shohei Ohtani set the tone instantly with a leadoff triple that whistled into right and scored on Mookie Betts’s sac fly for a 1–0 lead. When the D-backs answered to tie, the Dodgers’ middle innings felt like the “non-nailbiter” version we all crave. In the fourth, Tommy Edman dumped a single into center and Andy Pages launched No. 26, a two-run shot to left-center for a 3–1 lead. In the eighth, with Arizona threatening to muddy things, Teoscar Hernández delivered the kind of add-on the Dodgers have needed more of—a laser double to center to score Betts and push it to 4–1. At that point, “routine” seemed possible.

Not so fast. The bullpen turbulence that has become a late-season subplot revisited in the eighth. Roki Sasaki—more on him in a second—shut down the seventh with a groundout and back-to-back strikeouts that looked like a trailer for future blockbusters. But Alex Vesia ran into traffic in the eighth: single, walk, and then Carroll smoked an RBI double. Edgardo Henriquez took over, surrendered an infield RBI single to Gabriel Moreno, and watched pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo lift the game-tying sac fly. Just like that, a 4–1 cruise became a 4–4 knuckle-whitener, with Vesia charged for three and Henriquez taking the blown save despite allowing no earned runs. We’ve seen this movie before.

Now for the fresh twists. Sasaki was AWESOME—electric for one clean frame: three up, three down, two strikeouts, 13 pitches, eight strikes, and hitters reduced to guesses. Then came the sight every Dodger fan will be telling their grandkids about: Clayton Kershaw jogging in for the ninth. His first regular-season relief appearance since 2019 lasted all of 15 calm pitches—two groundouts and a fly to center that Tommy Edman leaped to corrall—to post a zero that reset the tone and the dugout’s heartbeat.

The tenth inning turned chaotic again. With the auto-runner at second, the Dodgers rolled the dice on a send that didn’t pay off. Mookie Betts lined a single to right, and pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim—churning around third—was gunned down at the plate by a perfect Corbin Carroll throw. The call stood after review, and the momentum meter swung hard to the home side. In the bottom half, Arizona loaded the bases on a sac bunt and a pair of intentional walks. Jack Dreyer induced an infield-fly pop to short, then Dave Roberts pushed his chips on Blake Treinen. The much-maligned veteran won a guts-check battle, getting James McCann to fly out harmlessly to shallow right. Tie preserved, season steadied.

That escape made the 11th possible, and the Dodgers didn’t waste it. Freddie Freeman advanced to third on a fly out to right, and with two strikes Tommy Edman delivered the definition of clutch: a clean single up the middle to plate the go-ahead run. Edman’s night—three hits, the game-winner, and a full-sprint catch to end the ninth—was the quiet star turn amid all the noise. Alex Call came in to run and man left field, shifting Andy Pages to center for the final frame.

For the save, Roberts turned to Justin Wrobleski, another outside-the-box choice that fit the night’s theme. The lefty opened with a strikeout (Tim Tawa on a foul tip just nicked off the knob for strike three). He then coaxed a groundout that moved the ghost runner to third, then finished it off with another foul-tip strikeout— this time to Alek Thomas . Ballgame. Wrobleski pocketed save No. 2, Treinen earned the win, and an entire bullpen exhaled.

A few more threads worth tugging: Ohtani reached base twice (including that tone-setting triple), Betts had three hits (and that first inning sacrifice), and Teoscar’s 29th double was a dagger at the time—even if the pen let Arizona back in. Pages had the swing of the night with his two-run blast and made two high-leverage catches in left that mattered just as much. The defense turned a key double play in the sixth to help Snell, and Miguel Rojas started a slick one earlier to erase trouble.

The stakes on the other side weren’t small: with this loss, the D-backs squandered a chance to claw into the six seed and will try again Thursday. As for the Dodgers: one more. One more anything—win in Phoenix, Padres loss elsewhere—and the division belongs to Los Angeles for the 12th time in 13 years. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has something to say about putting a bow on it. First pitch Thursday is 12:40 p.m. PDT, and if the script holds—starter steady, bats opportunistic, defense airtight—maybe the ninth-inning drama takes the afternoon off. But if not, this team just showed it can win the wild ones, too.

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