The Los Angeles Dodgers are no strangers to unlikely walk-off wins, but Tuesday night’s victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks had an extra sense of weirdness to it. With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers worked five straight walks for a come-from-behind win.
Russell Martin was the second of the five Dodgers to get a free pass in the rally, and he scored the winning run on Cody Bellinger’s walk. Despite clearly being past his prime, the veteran Martin has worked a solid .355 on-base percentage thanks in part to his plate discipline.
Thus, Martin would know the type of approach it takes to work such an unlikely rally. He outlined the type of patience the Dodgers showed on Tuesday, even if it was a bit of a challenge for him personally as the crowd began to grow more excitable, via J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s hard to stay patient when there’s like that build-up and you can feel that tension,” Martin said. “Everybody wants to get the game-winning hit. But you have to hunt what you can do damage on. It’s that simple. You want to swing at good pitches. That’s kind of the name of the game.
“But when the crowd gets going and you feel the energy build up, I think everything gets magnified,” Martin continued. “The crowd, you can feel them. They want you to swing. They want you to make something happen, but you’ve got to just know what you can do, stay within yourself, and I think everybody did that tonight.”
The Dodgers had already wasted opportunities earlier in the game thanks to some bad swings. There was also a bit of bad luck involved.
With two on and one out in the bottom of the first, Bellinger swung at a low pitch only to line it directly at Jake Lamb, who then stepped on first base for an easy inning-ending double play.
Likewise, with Chris Taylor on third base representing the tying run in the seventh, Alex Verdugo swung at a pitch on the outside part of the plate to harmlessly ground out and end the inning.
When the Dodgers’ batters needed to do so the most, however, they showed great plate discipline and force the D-Backs’ relievers to throw strikes, which they could not.
Martin has been around for some of the craziest walk-off situations in Dodgers history. Most recently, he got to witness rookies Matt Beaty, Verdugo and Will Smith all hit walk-off home runs to sweep the Colorado Rockies.
During his first stint with the Dodgers, though, Martin was part of one of the most iconic rallies in team history.
In a high-stakes game in late 2006 against the San Diego Padres, who were neck-and-neck with the Dodgers for the National League West lead, Martin hit the third of four-straight home runs in the bottom of the ninth to erase a four-run deficit.
The game went into extra innings, and the Dodgers walked off in the 10th thanks to a homer from current SportsNet LA analyst Nomar Garciaparra.
