The day started with a couple of Shohei Ohtani home runs. It continued with a strong 5 ⅔ inning start from Clayton Kershaw. And it ended with the Dodgers in a celebratory postgame line, trading victorious high-fives near the mound.
After five straight losses, several weeks of mounting frustration, and the most painful collapse imaginable the night before, the Dodgers took a crucial first step toward righting their sinking ship on Sunday.
They beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, finally finding a way to hold a late-game lead.
They ended an otherwise disastrous road trip on a sorely needed high note.
Read more: Yoshinobu Yamamoto falls one out short of a no-hitter, then Dodgers lose in Orioles walk-off
It was the kind of day the Dodgers were desperately searching for amid their recent struggles, which reached a new low when their no-hitter turned walk-off nightmare on Saturday trimmed their division lead down to just one game.
That game was the kind of loss that threatened to throw the Dodgers into an all-out nose-dive; an unthinkable defeat that, on top of their previously mounting frustrations, turned Sunday into yet another gut check for the long-slumping club (which entered Sunday 10 games under .500 since July 4).
“We’ve got to keep going,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame. “It’s hard. It’s not fun going through it. These guys feel it. But I just refuse to relent and not be optimistic and positive. Just keep going. That’s all we can do.”
Ohtani helped the Dodgers (79-64) turn the page quickly Sunday. Facing a fellow Japanese native in Tomoyuki Sugano, Ohtani launched the second pitch he saw to center for a leadoff home run. It was his 12th leadoff blast of the year, tying Mookie Betts’ franchise record for a single season.
On Ohtani’s next trip to the plate, the two-way star went deep again, blasting his 48th home run of the year on a 2-and-0 fastball. And in the next at-bat, Mookie Betts made it back-to-back deep flies with a drive to left.
Just like that, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead — which was later extended to 4-0 after Miguel Rojas scored from third on an errant pickoff throw from Baltimore catcher Alex Jackson in the fourth.
And unlike Saturday, they managed to hold onto it, finally matching a productive day at the plate with a stout (if not entirely stress-free) performance from the pitching staff.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the third inning against the Orioles on Sunday. (Terrance Williams / Associated Press)
As he has repeatedly this year, Kershaw served as a stopper to another Dodgers slider, setting a new season high with eight strikeouts while giving up just two hits through his first five innings.
Kershaw got knocked out of the game in the sixth, following a Gunnar Henderson single and RBI double from Emmanuel Rivera. Edgardo Henriquez flirted with disaster after that, giving up another RBI double to Jackson and a loud fly ball to Dylan Carlson that died at the warning track.
But from there, the Dodgers settled back down. Justin Wrobleski provided two key innings of scoreless relief, stranding the final five batters he faced after putting two aboard in the seventh. The Dodgers tacked on an insurance run in the ninth, when Betts hit an RBI single off the wall (he was held to just the one base after not hustling out of the box) following a leadoff single from Ben Rortvedt and a walk from Ohtani (his third of the day, reaching base in all five trips to the plate).
And after being walked off by the Orioles (66-77) each of the first two nights at Camden Yards this weekend, the Dodgers avoided more fireworks in the ninth, when rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer came on for his third save of the season.
Granted, one win will put only the slightest dent in the damage the past week has done.
Read more: Despite emergency help from Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers lose again: ‘Truly have no answers’
Instead of extending their National League West lead and making a run for a top-two seed in the NL, the Dodgers let the San Diego Padres (who have also been slumping) hang around in the division and the Philadelphia Phillies (who currently hold the No. 2 seed, which comes with a first-round bye in the playoffs) pull away in the standings.
Instead of capitalizing on a weak spot in the schedule, they will return home with a 1-5 record against two last-place teams.
However, given the way Saturday ended, the season was starting to feel dangerously close to the brink. Sunday’s win, for at least one day, helped calm the waters. At a point they could have completely imploded, they managed to rebound with a long-awaited win.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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