The Los Angeles Dodgers were on the verge of another loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night, but put together a rally in the ninth inning that was capped off by Mookie Betts’ pinch-hit single giving them a 3-2 walk-off win.
Well before that, a defensive miscue between Gavin Lux and Trea Turner in second consecutive Julio Urías start again led to a run. The Diamondbacks went on to load the bases with one out but Urías limited the damage to remaining within 1-0 after a sacrifice fly.
That wound up being all Urías allowed but he fought a high pitch count and was removed with one out in the sixth inning. Evan Phillips inherited a runner in scoring position due to Urías allowing a leadoff double, but he struck out both batters faced to keep the game tied.
That also ensured Urías remained the National League ERA leader at 2.25. Urías has been even better in the second half of the season, pitching to a 1.34 ERA over 11 starts.
Zac Gallen, who recently had a streak of 44.1 scoreless innings, followed in Madison Bumgarner’s footsteps by completing three perfect innings against the Dodgers.
Gallen’s perfect game was lost on Will Smith’s floater to shallow left field that dropped and rolled past Stone Garrett for a two-out triple in the fourth inning. Max Muncy followed that with a line drive that landed just fair down the right-field line for a game-tying RBI double.
Prior to that at-bat, Muncy was a career 1-for-15 against Gallen.
The two hits wound up being minor blips for the Diamondbacks’ starter. Gallen followed Muncy’s double by retiring the final 13 batters faced to get through eight innings. He set a career high with 13 strikeouts, of which Joey Gallo, Gavin Lux, Trace Thompson and Cody Bellinger combining for 10 of those.
Although the Dodgers bullpen received stellar appearances from Phillips, Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol, the effort was nearly squandered when Christian Walker hit a solo home run off Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning.
Bellinger started the Dodgers’ rally in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff double that nearly had enough carry for a game-tying home run. After Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked, Smith reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases.
The Diamondbacks attempted to stave off the momentum swing with a pitching change, but Muncy tied the game on a soft infield single. Betts pinch-hit for Gallo with two outs to provide heroics.
Dodgers magic number
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed in the National League over the New York Mets is three, and seven for home-field advantage through the World Series.
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