Steve Webb
Game 156, 9/22/2024: Dodgers 6, Rockies 5
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Never been so happy to rewrite a recap! Wow! After looking like a corpse for the first half of the game, the Dodgers picked themselves up off the mat and came from behind to win a gigantic victory over the Colorado Rockies with ninth inning homers from Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to win 6-5. It. Was. Awesome.
An amazing game. Where to begin? How about with the performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto? In his third start after his extended stint in the IL, Yamamoto struggled to find the strike zone in this one. A rough 35-pitch first innning started off the game with a lot of cheap contact, but also three runs in the bank for Colorado. After a Teoscar Hernandez solo shot in the fourth another run was surrendered in the fifth by rookie reliever Ben Casparius and the Dodgers found themselves in a four-run hole going into the latter stages of the game.
Trailing 5-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers needed a spark, and Enrique Hernández delivered. With Miguel Rojas on base after a walk, Hernández launched a two-run homer off Rockies reliever Jaden Hill, cutting the deficit to 5-3. The momentum was shifting as the home crowd came alive. Hernández was a late addition to the lineup after Max Muncy was scratched due to some pain resulting from a rough landing in Saturday’s game. But Kiké’s clutch shot energized the Dodgers, signaling the start of their late-game rally. After a Shohei single and steal (his 55th), Freddie Freeman kept the momentum going in the seventh with a two-out RBI single, bringing Ohtani home and cutting the Rockies’ lead to just one run, 5-4. The Dodgers were right back in the game as the crowd roared to life.
The Dodgers got great relief work from Casparius in this one. Though he did surrender a run, he was fantastic in the later stages of the game, going three innings and striking out five. Blake Treinen and his filth took over in the ninth and struck out the side on some ridiculouly nasty pitches. That set the stage for the ninth inning fireworks.
Shohei Ohtani, who had already been a force at the plate with multiple hits, continued his dominance in the ninth inning. Leading off against Rockies reliever Halvorsen, Ohtani hammered a solo home run to deep right field, his 53rd of the season, bringing the Dodgers into a 5-5 tie. Just moments later, Mookie Betts stepped into the box. With the Dodgers still trailing by a run, Betts crushed the second pitch he saw from Halvorsen into the left field seats for the winner. His 19th home run of the season couldn’t have come at a more crucial time, as Mookie rounded the bases while Dodger Stadium erupted in cheers to the strains of Randy Newman.
The late-inning heroics by Ohtani, Betts, and Hernández fueled the Dodgers’ incredible comeback. This victory cuts the Dodgers’ “magic number” to just four. In other words, if the Dodgers take two out of three from the Padres, the NL West crown is theirs. Let’s do this.
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