PHOENIX — The Dodgers scored eight runs in the first three innings but trailed by the sixth inning. Roki Sasaki couldn’t get through five. Anthony Banda gave up another grand slam. Pitching coach Mark Prior was ejected from the game after a bad call forced in a go-ahead run.
And they won.
The Dodgers scored six times in the ninth inning – the last three on Shohei Ohtani’s 12th home run of the season – to come from behind and reclaim victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 14-11, in a wild ride at Chase Field on Friday night.
Staked to that early lead, Sasaki couldn’t get through five innings. Advertised as “a work in progress” when he signed as a much-hyped addition this offseason, the Dodgers are still waiting for Sasaki to have a growth spurt on the mound.
He gave up two home runs in the first inning – a solo home run by Ketel Marte and a two-run homer by Eugenio Suarez.
Sasaki handled the second and third innings but gave up a double, hit a batter and walked another as the Diamondbacks scored again in the fourth. He walked the first batter in the fifth – aided by a missed call by home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak – and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had seen enough.
The 100-mph fastball that Sasaki flashed during his best days in Japan must have been diminished by tariffs. He averaged just 94.9 mph against the Diamondbacks (down from his season average of 96.1 mph) and got no swings-and-misses with it, striking out no one in the start.
Still – thanks to the Dodgers’ early pounding of Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez – he left with an 8-4 lead. But Banda gave up a single and a walk to load the bases for Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who launched a 1-and-0 slider 401 feet into the left field seats. It was the second grand slam Banda has given up in his past six appearances and it tied the score.
Banda gave up a single and walked two (one intentionally) to load the bases again in the sixth inning. With two outs, Luis Garcia came in and fought Gurriel Jr. for nine pitches. Garcia was headed to the dugout after the ninth pitch, satisfied that his sweeper had caught the top of the strike zone and struck Suarez out. It had. But Rehak called it ball four, forcing in a run and giving the Diamondbacks the lead.
That was the breaking point for Prior, who was ejected between innings by Rehak.
The Dodgers’ eight-run burst in the first three innings featured two doubles by Shohei Ohtani, a home run from Kiké Hernandez and a five-run third inning. But the next five innings featured just two more baserunners. Diamondbacks reliever Cristian Mena followed Rodriguez with 3⅓ innings of hitless relief and five strikeouts.
When Marte and Randall Grichuk hit back-to-back home runs off of Alex Vesia in the eighth inning, it seemed to put the game away for the Diamondbacks. For Marte, it was his second home run of the game and third of the series.
But the Dodgers tied the score with four consecutive hits in the ninth inning off Diamondbacks reliever Kevin Ginkel – a squibbed ground ball by Freeman, a double by Andy Pages that drove him in, a double by Hernandez that scored Pages and a single by Max Muncy that tied it.
Ginkel struck out James Outman but hit Michael Conforto with a pitch. Ryan Thompson came in to face Ohtani. He crushed a 1-and-2 splitter, ripping a 113-mph rocket 426 feet into the seats, tossing his bat aside and raising his hands to the sky.
More to come on this story.
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