BALTIMORE — The day began with a few Shohei Ohtani house runs. It continued with a powerful 5 ⅔ inning begin from Clayton Kershaw. And it ended with the Dodgers in a celebratory postgame line, buying and selling victorious high-fives close to the mound.
After 5 straight losses, a number of weeks of mounting frustration, and essentially the most painful collapse conceivable the night time earlier than, the Dodgers took a vital first step towards righting their sinking ship on Sunday.
They beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, lastly discovering a strategy to maintain a late-game lead.
They ended an in any other case disastrous street journey on a sorely wanted excessive word.
It was the sort of day the Dodgers had been desperately trying to find amid their latest struggles, which reached a brand new low when their no-hitter turned walk-off nightmare on Saturday trimmed their division lead all the way down to only one sport.
That sport was the sort of loss that threatened to throw the Dodgers into an all-out nose-dive; an unthinkable defeat that, on prime of their beforehand mounting frustrations, turned Sunday into one more intestine test for the long-slumping membership (which entered Sunday 10 video games below .500 since July 4).
“We’ve acquired to maintain going,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated pregame. “It’s arduous. It’s not enjoyable going by means of it. These guys really feel it. However I simply refuse to relent and never be optimistic and optimistic. Simply maintain going. That’s all we will do.”
Ohtani helped the Dodgers (79-64) flip the web page shortly Sunday. Going through a fellow Japanese native in Tomoyuki Sugano, Ohtani launched the second pitch he noticed to heart for a leadoff house run. It was his twelfth leadoff blast of the 12 months, tying Mookie Betts’ franchise report for a single season.
On Ohtani’s subsequent journey to the plate, the two-way star went deep once more, blasting his forty eighth house run of the 12 months on a 2-and-0 fastball. And within the subsequent at-bat, Mookie Betts made it back-to-back deep flies with a drive to left.
Identical to that, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead — which was later prolonged to 4-0 after Miguel Rojas scored from third on an errant pickoff throw from Baltimore catcher Alex Jackson within the fourth.
And in contrast to Saturday, they managed to carry onto it, lastly matching a productive day on the plate with a stout (if not totally stress-free) efficiency from the pitching employees.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers within the third inning towards the Orioles on Sunday.
(Terrance Williams / Related Press)
As he has repeatedly this 12 months, Kershaw served as a stopper to a different Dodgers slider, setting a brand new season excessive with eight strikeouts whereas giving up simply two hits by means of his first 5 innings.
Kershaw acquired knocked out of the sport within the sixth, following a Gunnar Henderson single and RBI double from Emmanuel Rivera. Edgardo Henriquez flirted with catastrophe after that, giving up one other RBI double to Jackson and a loud fly ball to Dylan Carlson that died on the warning monitor.
However from there, the Dodgers settled again down. Justin Wrobleski offered two key innings of scoreless reduction, stranding the ultimate 5 batters he confronted after placing two aboard within the seventh. The Dodgers tacked on an insurance coverage run within the ninth, when Betts hit an RBI single off the wall (he was held to only the one base after not hustling out of the field) following a leadoff single from Ben Rortvedt and a stroll from Ohtani (his third of the day, reaching base in all 5 journeys to the plate).
And after being walked off by the Orioles (66-77) every of the primary two nights at Camden Yards this weekend, the Dodgers averted extra fireworks within the ninth, when rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer got here on for his third save of the season.
Granted, one win will put solely the slightest dent within the injury the previous week has accomplished.
As a substitute of extending their Nationwide League West lead and making a run for a top-two seed within the NL, the Dodgers let the San Diego Padres (who’ve additionally been slumping) dangle round within the division and the Philadelphia Phillies (who presently maintain the No. 2 seed, which comes with a first-round bye within the playoffs) draw back within the standings.
As a substitute of capitalizing on a weak spot within the schedule, they may return house with a 1-5 report towards two last-place groups.
Nevertheless, given the way in which Saturday ended, the season was beginning to really feel dangerously near the brink. Sunday’s win, for at the least at some point, helped calm the waters. At some extent they might have fully imploded, they managed to rebound with a long-awaited win.
