Depending on how the next (and final) week of the regular season goes, the Dodgers could wind up with the best record in baseball, or they could lose the division and face a daunting path through the playoffs.
On Sunday, in a pivotal rubber-match game against the lowly Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers took an important — and dramatic — step toward avoiding the latter.
After suffering a surprise loss to the Rockies on Saturday night, the Dodgers bounced back with a walk-off 6-5 win at Chavez Ravine on Sunday, maintaining a three-game lead over the second-place San Diego Padres in the National League West thanks to a late-game comeback capped by back-to-back home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“I got a pitch to hit, and fortunately, I hit it,” Betts said in an on-field interview with SportsNet LA. “It’s fun, it’s why we play the game, you know? This is the stuff you kind of dream about, and I’m fortunate that I get to live it. I just love playing with these guys, and every game now is super important.”
The result gave the Dodgers some breathing room ahead of a monumental three-game series against the Padres at Dodger Stadium this coming week, lowering their magic number to clinch the division to four.
“It’s the goal,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame of the importance of winning the division, which would likely (and just as crucially) secure a wild-card-round bye for a club short on pitching.
“Certainly, where we’re at, it’d be helpful,” Roberts added. “It’s in our own hands. So that would be certainly welcomed, and it’s something that we still got to earn. We still got some work to do.”
That work got a lot easier thanks to the club’s late-game comeback.
Trailing 5-1 entering the seventh inning, the Dodgers got back in the game on a Kiké Hernández’s two-run homer and RBI single from Freddie Freeman, who plated Shohei Ohtani from second after he stole his second base of the game (and 55th of the season).
Then, trailing by one in the ninth, the Dodgers completed the comeback in dramatic fashion.
Ohtani led off the inning with a line-drive blast to right. Of the 53 homers he has hit this year, none might have been more important.
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Moments later, Betts sealed the deal, launching a towering walk-off homer to left.
“It’s getting down to crunch time, we’ve only got a couple-game lead, and they’re coming in,” Betts said of the Padres. “We know they’ll be ready to play, so getting every win is huge.”
The late rally washed away a forgettable start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up four runs in three innings while battling poor command, and the Dodgers defense, which failed to execute a couple plays early in the game. The Rockies scored twice when Gavin Lux failed to come up with a well-struck one-hopper in the first inning, then another when Hernández misplayed a double off the wall in the sixth.
For a while, those moments looked likely to be the difference.
Late into the afternoon, the Dodgers seemed to be heading toward a disastrous weekend series loss.
Instead, they found just enough late life to keep pace in the ever-tightening NL West race.
“I just want the mindset to be, stay on the attack,” Roberts said pregame, hopeful his team would play with some October-esque edge. “We’re not chasing anyone, and you can’t go into careful, defense mode.”
It took a while Sunday, but the Dodgers heeded their manager’s message just in time.
Gonsolin’s next step
A day after pitching three scoreless innings in his third minor-league rehab outing this month, Tony Gonsolin remains a potential option for the Dodgers’ postseason staff, Roberts said, though the team will wait for Gonsolin to throw a bullpen session next week before deciding what’s next for the right-hander.
Gonsolin is trying to make a surprise return from the Tommy John surgery he underwent late last season; an operation that was initially expected to keep him out until the 2025 season.
In his three triple-A rehab starts this month, Gonsolin had a 2.35 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 7 ⅔ innings. During Saturday’s outing, he averaged just under 92 mph with his fastball and topped out at 94.3 mph while getting whiffs on all five swings against his slider, changeup and splitter.
In a best-case scenario, Gonsolin could be activated to pitch for the Dodgers in next weekend’s final regular-season series in Colorado — though Roberts said that is not a requirement for him to be considered for a postseason roster spot.
“He has postseason experience,” Roberts said of Gonsolin, who could help the Dodgers as a starter or multi-inning reliever. “To continue to move forward with his progression is most important. And then we’ll just see where he’s at, where we’re at.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
