For the better part of two hours Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers seemed poised to ride Clayton Kershaw to a shutout victory against the St. Louis Cardinals. But a leadoff single in the ninth inning led to an odd sequence.
After advancing to scoring position on a fielder’s choice, Randal Grichuk scored from second base on a wild pitch. The game went into extra innings, when the Dodgers lost Joc Pederson.
He was involved in a scary collision with Yasiel Puig in the 10th inning. Both players were bearing down on a fly ball to the right-center field gap.
Puig’s left elbow struck Pederson in his neck, and he face-planted into the base of the wall. Puig somehow managed to complete the catch for the third out.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts likened Pederson’s status to having been in a car accident. The young center fielder was diagnosed with a neck strain.
The Dodgers and Cardinals played into the 13th inning. Kiké Hernandez worked a two-out walk, setting the stage for Logan Forsythe to play hero in his first game back from the disabled list. Forsythe’s first hit was a walk-off double down the right-field line.
“If there’s a guy when the game is on the line, I still trust him. That was a big at-bat,” Roberts said.
Prior to that point, Forsythe was 0-for-4 on the night with four strikeouts and one walk. “You try not to focus on the negatives,” he said. “During the game, swings didn’t feel too bad. Something was a tick off.
“Lance has always kind of had my number when I’ve faced him before. I was just trying to make adjustments, I looked at some video, and I’m not a huge video guy. Luckily, that adjustment was made at some point in the game.”
