Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — The great thing about baseball is you don’t get to choose the players you have to lean on in crunch time. Cody Bellinger, with his average hovering around the Mendoza line, and Gavin Lux, who was having just a horrible weekend, were about the last guys you’d want at the plate in the bottom of the ninth in a tight game. And yet, it was just those guys who got it done. Cody Bellinger’s triple started a two-out rally, and Gavin Lux’s double finished it, as the Dodgers roared to life for a 5-4 walk-off win to salvage the final game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Lux’s costly error puts Grove in a hole
Things started out looking like another frustrating day at the ball park in this one. After rookie Michael Grove pitched a scoreless first inning, he was undone by some shoddy defense in the top of the second. With two outs and a couple of Phillies on base, shortstop Bryson Scott hit what looked like a routine ground ball to the right side. But second baseman Gavin Lux completely whiffed on the ball, allowing it to scoot under his glove and into right field. A run scored on the play, and by the time order was restored in the inning, the Phillies had a 4-0 lead.
Playing from behind for the fourth day in a row, the Dodgers knew that they couldn’t let this game get out of hand like had happened in the rest of this series. So the team needed Grove to put on his big boy pants and get some outs, so that they’d have a chance to crawl back into this thing. And, the lanky West Virginian did just that. After the second inning hiccup, Grove went another 1.2 innings and didn’t allow a run during the entire afternoon.
In fact, because Lux’s error occurred with two outs in the second all four of the runs scored off Grove were unearned. He nearly finished the fourth, but was lifted in favor of Phil Bickford when catcher Garrett Stubbs walked and stole second. Grove’s final line for the day 3.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. He didn’t have his best command, but he fought through the outing and gave his team a chance to win. Good job, Grover!
Betts starts Dodgers on comeback trail
Mookie Betts has been locked in for most of this month, so it’s no surprise that he would be the one to lead the Dodger up off the mat. With two out in the bottom of the third, he smacked another home run, his second of the weekend. It was a solo shot, but it got some momentum moving in the Dodgers’ direction.
Now trailing 4-1, the Dodgers had to claw their way back into this game. But to do that, the bullpen had to show up in this one. Luckily, they did just that. They got 5.1 innings of scoreless relief from the relief corps on Sunday, giving the offense a chance to climb up off the deck. After Bickford, they got solid performances from Alex Vesia, Yency Almonte, and Shane Greene to keep the Phillies stuck on 4 runs in the box score. Almonte’s outing was a bit of an adventure, but Vesia and Greene looked great in their combined three innings of work. Greene made his first big league appearance of the year, having just been called up from OKC. With the good relief pitching, the Dodgers had a shot in this one.
Single runs, but getting closer
After the Betts homer, the Dodgers got another run in the fourth on a Max Muncy RBI single, but then went quiet for a bit. The Dodgers had their shots against Phillies starter Aaron Nola, but just couldn’t break through, thanks in large part to some stellar defense from the Phillie infielders. So the game went into the bottom of the 8th with the Dodgers still trailing 4-2.
Betts comes through again in the 8th
The Dodgers inched a little closer in the eighth inning, thanks to you-know-who. Gavin Lux, who’d been at the plate in the seventh when Chris Taylor got thrown out trying to steal (questionable call), led off the inning with a walk off reliever Jeurys Familia. The next hitter, Mookie Betts, saw that Familia was having trouble with command, so he sat on the fastball. After taking a strike, he ripped a 96-mph sinker past the third baseman and into left field. By the time Kyle Schwarber had played the carom off the wall, the speedy Lux had scampered home from first to make the score 4-3 Phillies.
When Freddie Freeman walked, the Dodgers had a chance for more in the inning, but Trea Turner swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded into a double play. After Will Smith banged a ground out to a perfectly positioned Jean Segura, the inning was over and Mookie Betts was left stranded at third.
The glorious 9th inning
Things looked pretty grim at the start of the ninth inning. Max Muncy and Justin Turner both flew out off Phillies closer (and ex-Dodger) Corey Knebel. That left it up to the bottom of the order: Bellinger, Taylor, and Lux.
Bellinger watched a couple of strikes go by and quickly found himself in a 1-2 hole. However, on the next pitch, Knebel served up a juicy fastball that caught too much of the plate. Bellinger was all over it and ripped it into the right field corner. He turned on the jets and by the time the ball made it to the infield Belli was sliding into third base with a two-out triple.
Now the baton passed to Taylor. With Bellinger on third, Knebel was careful not to throw a wild pitch, so he threw Taylor nothing but fastballs. However, after working the count full, Taylor watched the sixth pitch of the at-bat sail too high out of the strike zone, and he drew the walk. Suddenly the go-ahead run was on first, and the Dodgers coming back in this one didn’t seem so far fetched.
In a bit of poetry that only baseball could write, the next batter was Gavin Lux. Yeah, that same Gavin Lux whose error put the Dodgers in this situation in the first place so many innings before. And now here he was, with a chance at redemption being served up on a silver platter. Knebel started him off with a couple of fastballs that missed the zone. Now ahead 2-0, Lux watched a knuckle curve drop into the strike zone for strike one. Lux got a good look at the pitch, and he knew that Knebel was having command issues with his heater.
So, he sat on the curve a second time. Knebel threw the knuckle curve again, but this time it was lower in the zone. Lux pounced on the ball, and knocked into into the right field corner. Bellinger scored easily, but the game was riding on Chris Taylor. Taylor had been sent in motion on the pitch, so was half way to second when Lux made contact. With two outs, he didn’t need to wait for the ball to hit the grass, he just kept chugging. He rounded third and scored without a throw. The Dodgers, in the most unlikely of manners, had gotten their first walk-off win of 2022. And it was saweeet!
Diamondbacks head into town
With the momentum of the walk-off, the Dodgers head into a divisional series with the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks starting on Monday night. The D-backs have the best record in the National League since the Dodgers last saw them in Phoenix, so it will be an interesting series to say the least. Hopefully, the Dodgers will return to form, and the D-backs will return to earth. Monday’s game features our old nemesis Madison Bumgarner tossing for Arizona, so there should be plenty of fireworks in store in that one. Tony Gonsolin gets the ball for the Boys in Blue. First pitch, 7:10 pm.
Cans of Corn…
- Really happy Lux had a chance to redeem himself. An error like that could have messed with his head.
- In order to get Grove and Greene on the roster, Garrett Cleavinger and Reyes Moronta were both optioned to Oklahoma City.
- Shane Greene looked very usable in his two innings of work. Hopefully, we’ll see more of this. He’s not that old, and not that far removed from being an All-Star.
- Glad that Michael Grove didn’t get saddled with a hard-luck loss in this one. That would have left a bitter taste in his mouth.
- Mookie has an OPS of nearly .900 in May. His early season slump is clearly over. Max, you’re next.
