The roof was open. The air was hot. And in a stadium already known as a hitter’s paradise, the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks teed off on each other in a Chase Field classic.
There were lead changes and sudden momentum shifts. Line-drive rockets and towering no-doubt blasts. The ejection of Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior, and a last-gasp ninth-inning comeback from their offense.
Most of all, there was Shohei Ohtani.
With two on and one out with the score tied in the ninth, Ohtani turned a riveting early May night into one of the most memorable games of his Dodger career, launching a go-ahead three-run home run that lifted the Dodgers to a 14-11 win.
As far as storybook moments in the regular season go, Friday’s ending had everything.
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By the ninth inning, the reigning National League MVP already hit two doubles as part of the Dodgers’ early onslaught, one that helped them build a five-run lead in the third inning they would later squander by surrendering eight unanswered scores.
But in the ninth, a leadoff infield single from Freddie Freeman was followed by consecutive run-scoring doubles from Andy Pages and Kiké Hernández, trimming what was an 11-8 deficit to 11-10. Max Muncy got the score knotted, knocking a single to right. Then, when Michael Conforto got hit with a pitch with one out, the Diamondbacks faced a decision.
Arizona could have intentionally walked Ohtani, a move that would have loaded the bases but also set up a force out at every bag. Instead, they replaced closer Kevin Ginkel with sidearm right-hander Ryan Thompson, hoping his funky delivery could keep Ohtani off balance.
He couldn’t, throwing a 1-and-2 splitter that stayed up over the middle. The sound alone off Ohtani’s bat left no doubt about where it would land.
Even before first pitch, Friday had the makings of a high-scoring affair.
Eduardo Rodríguez, the veteran left-hander who two years ago blocked an agreed-upon deadline day trade from Detroit to the Dodgers, entered the night with a 5.92 ERA and was facing a right-handed-heavy Dodgers lineup, with slumping lefty sluggers Muncy and Conforto dropped to the bench.
Roki Sasaki, meanwhile, was pitching on five days of rest (as opposed to six) for the first time in his career. He was throwing in a dry Arizona climate that can often influence the execution of breaking pitches. And, as a result, there was added importance on a fastball that has disappointed so far this season, averaging well below the triple-digit readings he was hoping to rediscover this season while generating few whiffs or much soft contact.
Right from the jump, the Diamondbacks took advantage.
While Rodríguez gave up one run in the first inning after a leadoff double from Ohtani, Sasaki was ambushed for three. In a 2-and-1 count, Ketel Marte got a middle-middle heater that he sent curling around the right-field foul pole for a solo home run. Then, after Josh Naylor doubled on a four-seamer that clocked in at just 92.8 mph, Eugenio Suárez launched an outer-edge fastball the other way for a two-run blast.
The homers were the fifth and sixth that Sasaki has given up in his last five outings. All of them have come against his fastball, a pitch that has yielded a lot of hard contact while getting very little swing-and-miss — including no whiffs Friday.
The Dodgers (26-13) had an answer of their own in the second, tying the game on Hernández’s sixth home run of the year and Ohtani’s second double in as many innings.
Then, in the third, they seemingly took control of the game, exploding for five runs on four hits and three walks while sending 11 batters to the plate — in an inning where the three outs were recorded by Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman no less.
Before ending the inning with a strikeout in his second at-bat of the third, Freeman helped get it started by roping a double down the line to put two runners in scoring position. Pages followed that up with a two-run single to left. Hernández and Miguel Rojas came up next and loaded the bases with a single and a walk. Still with no one out, James Outman hit the ground ball Arizona (20-19) was looking for, but an errant throw to the plate instead allowed two more runs to score. Betts later tacked on a sacrifice fly.
That should’ve been enough for the Dodgers, carrying the ensuing 8-3 lead into the fourth.
But on this night, no lead was ever truly safe.
Sasaki was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk in the fifth, the lead having been trimmed to 8-4 at that point. His replacement, Anthony Banda, failed to stem a turning tide.
Within three batters, the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded. With two outs in the inning, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. swung big at a down-and-in sinker. Banda turned to watch it fly for a tying grand slam, evening the score at 8-8.
Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr., left, pumps is fist after hitting a grand slam off Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda, right, during the fifth inning Friday. (Darryl Webb / Associated Press)
The Diamondbacks’ go-ahead run scored amid more contentious circumstances, as right-hander Luis García tried to escape another bases-loaded, two-out jam he inherited from Banda in the sixth.
In a full count with Suarez, he threw a high sweeper that appeared to catch the top of the strike zone. Home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak, however, ruled it a ball that walked in a run. After the inning, Prior was ejected for arguing from the dugout.
In the ninth, it was the Diamondbacks turn to seemingly put the game out of reach, hitting back to back home runs off Alex Vesia for an 11-8 lead.
But, once again, no lead on this night proved to be safe.
Especially not once the Dodgers got Ohtani back up to the plate.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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