The Los Angeles Dodgers ended their four-game losing streak with a walk-off win against the Arizona Diamondbacks and avoided wasting a brilliant start turned in by Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
With the starting pitching staff and bullpen both overworked and in a state of flux, Yamamoto had to be the stopper, and he was exactly that. The Dodgers ace took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before it was broken up by Ketel Marte with a leadoff single.
Marte ended up advancing to second on a wild pitch, and then third on a groundout. Gabriel Moreno walked as the D-Backs were threatening to tie the game, but Yamamoto stayed in.
On his career-high 110th pitch of the game, Yamamoto struck out Pavin Smith to end the threat and keep the Dodgers in the lead.
Yamamoto finished his outing with seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit, striking out nine and walking two. It was perhaps the best he’s looked with the Dodgers, and he lowered his season ERA to 1.86 in the process.
Ryne Nelson also proved to be effective in the outing, and he once again gave the Dodgers’ offense trouble, which he has done throughout his career. The right-hander tossed five innings of one-run ball, allowing just three hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
The Dodgers’ only run before extra innings came in the fourth inning when Freddie Freeman hit a two-out double and Will Smith followed with a double of his own to put them up 1-0.
In extra innings trailing by two, the Dodgers rallied in the 10th to walk it off. Tommy Edman started them off with a double to score Kiké Hernández, making it a 3-2 game. Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Will Smith was hit by a pitch to tie the game.
Max Muncy then hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers their 4-3 win.
Dodgers bullpen fails to protect lead
Alex Vesia entered in the eighth inning after Yamamoto’s day ended, but he ran into some immediate trouble after allowing a leadoff double to Geraldo Perdomo. A single from Tim Tawa then put runners at the corners with no one out.
Vesia bounced back by getting Eugenio Suarez to pop out, and then struck out Corbin Carroll. He walked Marte intentionally to load the bases as manager Dave Roberts went to the bullpen.
Ben Casparius was called upon to get the final out with the bases loaded. It’s now a role he’s familiar with, but the Dodgers don’t have any of their high-leverage right-handers in the bullpen, so they had to improvise.
Casparius battled against Lourdes Gurriel Jr. before finally striking him out on a 3-2 pitch to end the threat.
But in the ninth inning, Tanner Scott entered and blew the save and shutout after allowing a solo home run to Moreno. With the bullpen struggling and few options available, Scott was back out for extra innings, but he allowed a two-run homer to Corbin Carroll.
