Dodgers 7, Red Sox 6: Will Smith delivers a walk-off win as Dodgers mount comeback after comeback

Chad Moriyama 07/20/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After a rather thrilling late comeback win to start the first half last night against the Red Sox, today was another close game that went back-and-forth late. Twice the Dodgers came back late on the Red Sox today, and twice it was Tyler O’Neill that gave the Red Sox the lead right back. However, the Dodgers came back a third time in extras and then won it in the 11th behind Will Smith in a 7-6 victory.

Whoop.

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Red Sox starter Brayan Bello has struggled this year, so of course he kept the Dodgers almost completely quiet for most of the game. Gavin Lux did give the Dodgers an early lead with his 4th homer of the year in the 2nd, but that was all they got through five innings.

Fortunately then, Justin Wrobleski turned in his best start in his short MLB career thus far even if he did have to work out of trouble. He stranded a double in the 2nd, and then managed to work around a walk, steal, and another walk thanks to a Teoscar Hernandez double play on a foolish baserunning gamble in the 3rd.

Wrobleski then worked around a double in the 4th as well, before getting one out in the 5th and exiting the game due to pitch count and third time through the order stuff (4.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 83 Pitches).

Unfortunately, Yohan Ramirez didn’t have it again, allowing at least a run for the third straight outing. He immediately surrendered back-to-back singles — to be fair, the latter was Chris Taylor‘s indecision on a grounder — and then gave up a ringing double to Jarren Duran to put the Dodgers in a 2-1 hole. The only consolation was Ramirez didn’t make things worse and got the final two outs of the 5th.

Joe Kelly was next up in the 6th, having an adventure with a double and a walk but getting a scoreless frame.

Meanwhile, Bello was allowed to face the top of the lineup for a third time in the 6th and paid the price. Shohei Ohtani led off with a double, Freddie Freeman walked, and Teoscar singled to score Ohtani, with a hilarious throw from Wilyer Abreu moving everybody up a bag.

An Andy Pages sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead, though they weren’t able to get anymore.

It didn’t last long.

Anthony Banda entered in the 7th and was immediately bailed out of trouble by a stellar James Outman catch.

As the tweet says, though, he then walked a batter and gave up a no-doubter to O’Neill that gave the Red Sox the lead back at 4-3.

After the bats could only muster a walk in the 7th, Brent Honeywell got a 1-2-3 frame in the 8th. It was in the bottom of that frame the Dodgers rallied. With one out, Freeman and Teoscar had back-to-back singles, and Pages drew a walk to load the bases … where Miguel Rojas then got ahead 2-0 in the count and then checked his swing on a ball to bounce back to the pitcher for a 1-2-3 double play. Incredibly bad.

After Honeywell got another scoreless frame in the 9th, the Dodgers made it look easy against old friend Kenley Jansen, as Enrique Hernandez came up and immediately smacked his 6th homer to tie the game at 4-4.

With one down, Taylor worked the count and doubled to left, which led to Shohei being given a free pass, but two fly outs ended the threat.

Onto free baseball!

Evan Phillips entered to prevent a run from scoring and instead immediately gave up a two-run homer to O’Neill to make it 6-4.

After that frame was over, the Dodgers did fight back in the 10th behind an Pages double to make it 6-5, and down to their last strike, it was Enrique yet again with a single back up the box to tie the game at 6-6.

What a game.

The 11th belonged to Blake Treinen, who hit a batter on a backfoot slider to start, then got behind 3-1. However, he rebounded for a strikeout and a pair of infield pops (one after a ball just went foul instead of being a homer).

That seemed to set the Dodgers up well, as after Cavan Biggio laid down a sac bunt, Chris Taylor drew a walk. That cornered things for Ohtani, and Alex Cora decided to load the bases by putting him on intentionally. Smith stepped in and got ahead 2-0, then got a ball right down the middle and singled for a walk-off win!

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers58-41
Diamondbacks51-48 (7 GB)

The series finale will be on ESPN tomorrow at 1:00 PM HT/4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET. It’ll be James Paxton looking to … eat innings or whatever against Kutter Crawford.

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