Will Smith delivered a bases-loaded RBI single to left-center field in the 11th inning to give the Dodgers a dramatic 7-6 walk-off victory over the Boston Red Sox in front of a rollicking crowd of 48,129 in Chavez Ravine.
Reliever Blake Treinen gave the Dodgers a chance to win by escaping a two-on, no-out jam in the top of the 11th by striking out Dominic Smith, getting Ceddanne Rafaela to pop out to first base and pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida to pop out to third.
Pinch-hitter Cavan Biggio then opened the bottom of the 11th with a sacrifice bunt to advance automatic runner Kiké Hernández to third. Chris Taylor walked, and Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Boston brought an outfielder in for a five-man infield, but Will Smith hit a ball where the Red Sox weren’t to give the Dodgers their second straight come-from-behind win.
Hernández, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, almost single-handedly kept the Dodgers in the game, delivering clutch score-tying hits in the ninth and 10th innings to erase deficits of one and two runs.
The bottom of the ninth began with a familiar sight in Chavez Ravine, as former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen entered to protect a one-run lead. But the 6-foot-5, 265-pound right-hander jogged in from the right-field bullpen and was pitching for the Red Sox, not the club he notched the first 350 saves of his career with.
Hernández, who played with Jansen in L.A. and in Boston, hit a 415-foot home run off a 2-and-2 cut-fastball to tie the score 4-4. Taylor kept the inning going with a one-out double to left, and Ohtani was intentionally walked to put two on, but Smith and Freddie Freeman flied to right, sending the game to extra innings.
Tyler O’Neill gave the Red Sox a 6-4 lead in the top of the 10th with his second homer of the game, a two-run shot to left center off Dodgers closer Evan Phillips.
But the Dodgers rallied again in the bottom of the 10th, Andy Pages hitting a one-out RBI double to left field off reliever Greg Weissert to score automatic runner Freeman to trim Boston’s lead to 6-5.
Miguel Rojas struck out for the second out, but Hernández lined an RBI double to center field to score Pages for a 6-6 tie before getting thrown out at second base when he tried to advance on the throw home.
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The Dodgers blew a chance to tie the score or take a lead in the bottom of the eighth after they loaded the bases with one out on back-to-back singles by Freeman and Teoscar Hernández and a walk to Pages.
But Rojas couldn’t check his swing on a 2-and-0 cutter from Red Sox reliever Josh Winckowski that would have been ball three, hitting a tapper back to the mound for an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play that preserved Boston’s 4-3 lead.
The Dodgers had rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 3-2 lead, Ohtani leading off with a 112.7-mph line drive that Rafaela, the Red Sox shortstop, nearly caught with a leap before the ball rolled to the wall in left-center field for a double.
Will Smith struck out, but Freeman walked, and Teoscar Hernández lined a run-scoring single to right field for a 3-3 tie, the runners advancing when Wilyer Abreu air-mailed his throw to the plate for an error. Pages followed with a sacrifice fly to center to put the Dodgers in front.
The top of the seventh started with Dodgers center fielder James Outman making a spectacular leaping catch of a Rob Refsnyder drive, holding onto the ball as he crashed into the wall for the first out before crumpling to the ground on the warning track.
But Dodgers left-hander Anthony Banda walked Jarren Duran and grooved a first-pitch fastball to O’Neill, who crushed a two-run homer that left his bat at 110.4 mph and traveled 399 feet into the left-field bullpen for a 4-3 Red Sox lead.
Justin Wrobleski gave the Dodgers just about everything they could have asked for in his third big-league start, the 24-year-old left-hander from Hickory Flat, Ga., allowing three hits, striking out five–four with 97-mph fastballs–and walking two in 4 ⅓ innings and holding the Red Sox hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.
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But Wrobleski’s pitch count reached 83 when he got Smith to fly out to right for the first out of the fifth, and he was pulled in favor of right-hander Yohan Ramirez with a 1-0 lead, courtesy of Gavin Lux’s solo home run to right field off Red Sox starter Brayan Bello in the second.
The inning unraveled quickly for Ramirez, who was last seen committing a fielding error and a throwing error on back-to-back bunts in a walk-off loss to the Detroit Tigers in the game before the All-Star break.
Rafaela, Boston’s No. 9 hitter, singled sharply to left field, and leadoff man Refsnyder beat out a chopper to third for an infield single.
Ramirez then broke a 2-and-2 sweeper right onto the bat head of Duran, and the former Long Beach State star and All-Star Game most valuable player hammered a two-run double to the gap in right-center field to give Boston a 2-1 lead.
Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly, making his first appearance since May 5, gave up a one-out double and a walk in the top of the sixth but got Rafaela to ground into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
Not-so-hot corner
Miguel Vargas continues to do early work at third base, and Roberts said he is warming to the idea of moving the left fielder to a position the Dodgers have struggled to fill since Max Muncy suffered an oblique strain in mid-May.
Vargas came up through the minor leagues as a third baseman. He opened the 2023 season at second base for the Dodgers but struggled both offensively and defensively and was moved to the outfield after being demoted to triple-A at the All-Star break.
“I like his work over there,” Roberts said. “It’s getting closer. I don’t know if it’s gonna happen, but I think that even the work that he’s putting into third base is a benefit. We’ll see if we can put that into a plan of action.”
Short hops
Roberts said River Ryan, a 25-year-old right-hander who has a 2.76 ERA in five starts for triple-A Oklahoma City, will be a “possibility” to start Monday night’s series opener against San Francisco. Landon Knack is scheduled to pitch Tuesday night, with Tyler Glasnow penciled in for Wednesday night and Clayton Kershaw for Thursday. … Reliever Ryan Brasier, out since April 29 because of a right-calf strain, threw to hitters for one inning on Saturday and will start what Roberts expects to be a lengthy minor league rehab stint this week. “I think he’s a few weeks away from returning to us,” Roberts said, “but from what I saw, he’s ready to go out on a rehab stint, to start getting some real hitters out and to do some back-to-backs.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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