Shohei Ohtani is showered with water by teammates as he crosses home plate after hitting a walk-off home run Wednesday night against the Braves at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
On a night of imperfection in all facets of their game, the Dodgers found a way to remain perfect anyway.
Those two early throwing errors by Max Muncy? Didn’t matter.
Andy Pages’ dropped ball in center? No sweat.
Blake Snell, the centerpiece of the half-billion-dollar offseason spending spree, not having his best stuff? A worry for another time.
And the early five-run deficit they faced as a result of it all? Turned out, it wouldn’t last.
Instead the Dodgers mounted a stirring comeback that pushed their record to 8-0, the best start by any defending champion in MLB history. They took a game in which they seemed destined to beat themselves and found a way to beat the Atlanta Braves 6-5 on Wednesday.
And, on a night fans lined up outside Dodger Stadium hours early to receive his bobblehead, Shohei Ohtani walked it off with a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth.
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“I was a little dumbfounded,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I was dumbfounded with the way we were playing [early]. I didn’t recognize that club in the first couple innings. And then just dumbfounded we found a way to win that game. We had no business winning that game. But to our guys’ credit, we just kept fighting.”
Indeed, if there’s one common theme to the Dodgers’ unblemished start, it’s been their ability to fight through every early test. They’ve gone around the world and back, just two weeks removed from their season-opening trip to Tokyo. They’ve blocked out the distractions of the World Series ceremonies that accompanied their first homestand.
They’ve been playing at less than full strength, missing Freddie Freeman for a third consecutive game (and fifth overall) as he continues to rest the surgically repaired ankle he reaggravated with a slip in his shower last weekend.
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And despite their flawless record, they haven’t even started clicking on all cylinders.
“We haven’t really played great baseball,” Roberts said. “And tonight, obviously, was the worst game we’ve played.”
It was early on, at least, with poor defense and shaky pitching gift-wrapping the winless Braves a 5-0 lead.
With two outs in the first, Muncy fielded a ground ball from Bryan De La Cruz behind third base but one-hopped his throw past Kiké Hernández at first, allowing an unearned run to score. In the next at-bat, Nick Allen tacked on another with an RBI single, the inning ending only when De La Cruz was thrown out trying to score as the trail runner.
The ball found Muncy again in the second inning when he was able to get to Stuart Fairchild’s spinning bunt near the mound but misfired yet again on a throw up the line. Those errors were compounded when Pages dropped the ball trying to make a running catch in deep center, the Braves plating yet another unearned run. Matt Olson made things worse with a two-run double later in the inning.
Dodgers pitcher Ben Casparius celebrates after striking out Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley to quell a sixth inning rally at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“You do the hard part by actually making the play, and you fail the easy part, which is the throw,” said Muncy, who slapped his glove in disgust after his second-inning miscue. “That’s pretty frustrating for me, because I felt like me, personally, got Blake out of rhythm. And that’s never what you want as a defender.”
Snell didn’t help his cause much, struggling to locate his pitches while showing visible frustration with home plate umpire Tony Randazzo. In a four-inning start, Snell walked four batters, gave up five hits and — despite each of his five runs being unearned — took a step backward from his five-inning, two-run debut last week.
“I just gotta attack the zone and throw strikes,” Snell said. “If I can do that, I’ll be good.”
Snell’s bigger takeaway, though, was how the Dodgers — who’d collected five come-from-behind wins already — managed to fight their way back into the game once again.
“The belief is big here,” Snell said. “It’s fun when everyone knows that we’re gonna find a way.”
The turnaround started in the second, when Michael Conforto drew a leadoff walk ahead of Tommy Edman’s team-leading fourth home run. Conforto went deep for his first time as a Dodger two innings later, cutting the deficit to 5-3.
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The Dodgers weren’t done making mistakes. Pages was doubled off at third on a Mookie Betts lineout in the fifth, negating a runners-on-the-corners opportunity with no outs. Conforto was thrown out trying to go first to third on a single to Fairchild in right an inning later,.
But then Muncy got his redemption, coming to the plate with the tying runs on second and third with two outs in the eighth.
Muncy had been using a newfangled “torpedo” bat shipped to him that morning, testing out the innovative mode,l in which the fattest part of the barrel is moved closer to the handle, that has become the craze of the baseball world in recent days.
But after making outs in his first three at-bats, the veteran slugger switched back to his normal lumber in the eighth.
“There wasn’t any second-guessing it,” Muncy said, feeling like the torpedo model had gotten his swing a little off-plane. “It was, I’m taking my bat up there, and I’m going to do something with my bat.”
In a 1-and-2 count against Braves closer Raisel Iglesias — who had been summoned for a five-out save by Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, trying to snap his team’s six-game skid — Muncy roped an elevated changeup to right for a two-run double.
Just like that, the score was 5-5.
“The way the game started for him on the defensive side, and then his first three at-bats, to continue to fight and not quit was huge,” Roberts said. “This game kind of keeps presenting opportunities, and you got to be ready for them. And tonight he was.”
So too was Ohtani, who last year made a habit of delivering in big moments, including bobblehead nights such as Wednesday’s.
Thus, when the superstar slugger launched a first-pitch changeup from Iglesias over the wall in straightaway center, his teammates erupted in wild celebration — but came pouring out of the dugout feeling no surprise.
“When he was coming up and it’s his bobblehead night — everyone knew,” Snell said with a laugh.
Fans are given a Shohei Ohtani bobblehead while entering Dodger Stadium before the game between the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“It’s just a question of where he’d hit it,” Edman echoed in amazement.
As is his style, Ohtani downplayed his contributions while speaking to reporters. He said he simply was “looking for a really good pitch to hit” and willing to walk if he didn’t get it.
He credited the victory more to Muncy’s double an inning earlier as well as a bullpen that combined for five scoreless innings (including two frames each from rookies Ben Casparius and Jack Dreyer).
“There is a really good vibe within the team,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So I just think that’s allowing us to come back in these games to win.”
That’s the mood throughout the Dodgers’ clubhouse. They still feel they have room to improve in almost every department. But no one has found a blueprint for beating their $400-million roster yet.
“It looked bleak early … but our guys persevered,” Roberts said when asked if his team might be virtually unbeatable. “I think each night we’re unbeatable, and we’ll see how that works out.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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