Tigers 11, Dodgers 9: At least Chad wasn’t awake to see that one

The Dodgers managed to squander a five-run lead in the ninth and blew a bases loaded opportunity in the 10th. Credit to the Tigers, who battled and were able to take advantage of some rough late innings for the Dodgers to earn a series split with an 11-9 win in the 10th inning.

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The game started off promisingly enough, as Shohei Ohtani started off the game with a triple. Teoscar Hernandez drew a walk, and Freddie Freeman grounded to first but beat out the potential double play to drive in the first run of the game.

The Dodger offense was clicking for most of the night. Some really smart and handsome writer wrote in the thread how this was the worst lineup they’ve had this year, so naturally they’d score 14 runs. They fell short of that, but were still able to put up nine. Chris Taylor continued his patience at the plate and drew a bases-loaded walk in the third. Ohtani led off the fifth with his 200th career homer, and Gavin Lux showed some life with an two-run knock later in the inning.

Ohtani drove in another run in the seventh after he beat out a double play, and Enrique Hernandez broke out a two-run dong in the seventh, and Freeman hit a sac fly in the eighth for a ninth Dodger run. Should be enough for a win, right?

NCAA 25 comes out soon, so naturally I have to quote Lee Corso and say, “Not so fast, my friend.

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Justin Wrobleski had a very similar start to his MLB debut against the Brewers. He allowed a two-run double in the second after Kiké made an error at short, but held them to two runs over the first four innings. Things started to get dicy in the fifth, as he allowed back-to-back homers to start the inning.

Anthony Banda, Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia tossed scoreless innings to get the Dodgers to the ninth with a 9-4 lead. Unfortunately, that would not hold up.

Ricky Vanasco allowed two singles and a two-run double to the first three hitters to put the game into a save situation. Evan Phillips had to come in and got a ground out and a strikeout, but allowed an RBI single to close the book on Varland. That put a runner on for Colt Keith, who tied the game with his ninth homer of the season.

Phillips allowed another single, but was able to escape the inning and get the Dodgers into extras.

They had a wonderful chance in the top of the inning. After an Austin Barnes strikeout, Ohtani was intentionally walked and Teo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Freeman drilled a ball up the middle, but old friend Zach McKinstry made a hell of a play to start an inning-escaping double play.

Yohan Ramirez got the 10th and got an out on a sac bunt, but then Gio Urshela banged a walk-off for the improbable comeback victory.

Yeah, that one stings.

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The loss dropped the Dodgers to 56-40 and sets up a rubber match for tomorrow. I don’t believe either team has announced a starter. The Dodgers will likely deploy a bullpen game, and Kenta Maeda was originally slated to start for Detroit but he’s been moved to the bullpen. That game starts at 10:40 AM PT (sorry Chad, I’m not doing Hawaii time) and will be shown on SportsNet LA.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.