The Los Angeles Dodgers were down to their final strike on Friday night. After the Dodgers went up 3-0 early in the game, the Baltimore Orioles scored five unanswered runs to send L.A. to the ninth trailing by two.
Max Muncy took a one-out walk and was pinch-run for with Alex Call. Ryan Ward followed with a two-out walk that put Dalton Rushing at the plate with a chance to tie the game against Ryan Helsley.
Rushing took the first pitch for a strike, a slider on the inside part of the plate. He then chased a slider in the dirt to put him down 0-2. Up to that point in the game, Rushing was already 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and another appeared to be just seconds away.
But Rushing looked into the Dodgers dugout and found some inspiration from Mookie Betts.
“I go down two strikes, I chase another slider in the dirt, and I kind of look over and see Mookie has all the confidence in the world in me,” Rushing said.
“See the whole dugout on the top step, just put together a good at-bat from there. You’re in a hole against a really good closer, a guy that’s got really good stuff. I was just looking to spoil whatever the next pitch was.”
Rushing took the next pitch for a ball, the third consecutive slider. But then, Helsley tried to blow a fastball by Rushing at 98.6 mph. Instead, Rushing smacked the ball into right field for an RBI single that tied the game.
“A lot of different thoughts for the first eight and a half innings of baseball,” Rushing said.
Ward also came around to score on a throwing error by Tyler O’Neill on the same play, giving the Dodgers the walk-off victory as they scored three runs in the ninth inning. Rushing was not credited for the walk-off hit due to the run scoring on an error and was instead limited to an RBI single, but the stat sheet doesn’t matter in the moment.
The young backstop came through for his team, and they completed a comeback win.
Mookie Betts had strong offensive day
The rally started in the ninth inning when Betts hit a one-out home run that cut the deficit to one run. It was part of a 3-for-5 day for Betts, who also doubled, drove in one run and scored two runs in the win.
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