Dodgers Recap: Ohtani Goes Six Shutout, but D-Backs Walk it Off

PHOENIX — The Dodgers flew into Phoenix needing a clean, convincing win behind Shohei Ohtani and—stop me if you’ve heard this before—got exactly that for six innings. Then the bullpen tried to hand it back. Arizona walked it off, 5–4, and what should have been a feel-good September statement turned into another cautionary tale about late-inning leaks. The magic number stays at three, and the Padres are now just 1.5 games back.

Let’s start with the good, because Ohtani was every bit the ace the moment demanded. He logged six scoreless frames, scattering five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts on 91 pitches. That’s three September starts, zero runs allowed—a 0.00 ERA this month. He worked around a comebacker off the bat of Alek Thomas and never lost his edge, punching out Corbin Carroll twice and freezing the Diamondbacks’ middle with a crisp four-seamer/slider mix. Arizona didn’t reach third base against him until the sixth, and even then he coolly induced soft contact to strand traffic. Once again, Ohtani set the table for a stress-free win.

Teoscar Hernández supplied the thump that had been missing of late, looking every bit like his 2024 All-Star self. He ambushed Brandon Pfaadt for a solo blast in the second, then delivered the swing of the night in the sixth—a two-out rocket to the gap in left-center that split the outfielders and rolled to the wall. The triple chased home Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to push the lead to 3–0. Hernández finished with three RBI, and if you’ve been waiting for signs that his timing is back, this was it: short to the ball, barrels to the big part of the park, and no chase in leverage counts. The Dodgers don’t need him to carry them, but when he looks like this, the entire lineup lengthens.

Speaking of timely swings, Ben Rortvedt put an exclamation point on Ohtani’s night with a two-out homer in the seventh, his first of the season, to make it 4–0. That was only half of Rortvedt’s impact. He caught a terrific game—steering Ohtani through a whiff-heavy, walk-free outing and then managing chaos once the bullpen fires started in the seventh and eighth. In the eighth, with the D-backs threatening to swipe momentum on a double-steal look, Rortvedt cut down Gabriel Moreno at second to snuff out the play, a huge out that kept the tying run 90 feet away. On a night that went sideways late, his framing, game-calling, and arm were bright spots the Dodgers can build on.

Unfortunately, the seventh inning returned the roller coaster we’ve all grown too familiar with. Jack Dreyer opened the frame, recorded one out, then allowed a single and a two-out RBI double to James McCann. Edgardo Henriquez came in and promptly gave up a two-run homer to Adrian Del Castillo on his second pitch, and just like that, a 4–0 cruise became a 4–3 nail-biter. Alex Vesia navigated the eighth, working around two walks with the help of Rortvedt’s caught stealing and a strikeout to preserve the one-run lead. It wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t need to be—just three outs away.

Then came the ninth, and with it the familiar sting. Tanner Scott took the ball riding a string of four straight scoreless outings and a chance to slam the door. Instead, a hit-by-pitch, a walk, a sacrifice, and a sac fly tied the game. Moments later, Geraldo Perdomo lined the winner to left. Another blown save—the 10th of Scott’s season, the most in MLB—turned victory into a gut-punch loss and snatched the win away from Ohtani. One rough week can skew a reliever’s line; a double-digit blown-save total is a season-long problem. The Dodgers have tried to mix and match the ninth, protect Scott with matchups, and ride the hot hand. They’re running out of calendar to find an airtight answer.

It’s a shame, because so much of the script was there. Mookie Betts made a few clean plays at short and reached once; Freeman worked a key walk ahead of Teoscar’s triple; the team’s situational hitting (1-for-3 with runners in scoring position) wasn’t prolific but was opportunistic. The defense turned a sharp comebacker-start double play in the fifth to help Ohtani erase a single. This was the blueprint: star starter dominates, middle-order bat delivers separation, catcher contributes with the bat and the glove, and the late innings are a formality. Instead, the seventh cracked, the ninth collapsed, and the division picture tightened.

So where does that leave Los Angeles? Still in first at 88–69, still with a magic number of three, but now feeling the Padres’ breath at 1.5 games. Here come the rivals, playing like a club itching to flip the script on October. The Dodgers don’t need perfection to close this out—they need competence at the back end. Ohtani just gave them another postseason-caliber dress rehearsal. Teoscar provided the extra-base punch that changes series. Rortvedt showed why a steady hand behind the plate matters when the temperature rises.

Now the bullpen has to meet the moment. Get the ball over. Win the first pitch. Trust the defense. And, maybe most importantly, stop turning emphatic wins into coin flips. September has offered plenty of reminders that this team’s ceiling is as high as anyone’s; tonight was a reminder that October punishes leaks. The good news? The path is still in the Dodgers’ hands. The bad news? So is the ninth inning.

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