LOS ANGELES ― A bold display of power got the Los Angeles Dodgers back in the game Thursday against the Chicago White Sox.
An even bolder display of patience sealed the victory.
Freddie Freeman’s single to the warning track drove in Chris Taylor in the 11th inning of a 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Taylor began the 11th inning on second base as the automatic runner. He advanced to third on a passed ball by White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal. On the next pitch, Garrett Crochet walked Miguel Rojas.
That brought up Mookie Betts, who fouled off seven pitches in a 12-pitch duel that ended with a walk.
“I don’t even know what was going through my head, other than ‘don’t strike out’,” Betts said. “I know I had one job, and that was to keep the line moving. If I can get it to (Freeman) the game’s going to be over.”
With the bases loaded, Freeman clobbered a 3-and-1 pitch to deep center field, where Luis Robert Jr. did not bother to move in pursuit of the fly ball. It came to rest on the warning track ― technically a single ― as Taylor trotted home with the game-winning run.
Taylor also tied the game at 4 on a grand slam in the sixth inning, and made an athletic play to prevent a steal of home plate to end the seventh inning.
The win drew the Dodgers (39-30) two games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks (41-28) in the National League West.
The Dodgers had lost their last three series. A loss Thursday would have made it four in a row.
“We were sort of exhausting all of our options tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Four relievers ― Shelby Miller, Yency Almonte, Evan Phillips and Caleb Ferguson ― combined to throw six scoreless innings on a night when Brusdar Graterol and Tayler Scott were unavailable. Roberts scheduled a bullpen game in place of a traditional start Friday.
For five innings, Michael Grove was more efficient than his counterpart, White Sox starter Dylan Cease. He was more effective in recording called strikes and swinging strikes (30 compared to Cease’s 27). But he was done in by the home-run ball.
Grove allowed back-to-back home runs in the first inning to Robert and Eloy Jimenez, each in a two-strike count. In the fourth inning, he allowed back-to-back home runs to Jake Burger (on a 1-and-2 fastball) and Andrew Vaughn (a 3-and-0 fastball).
Meanwhile, Cease did not allow a hit until Betts singled with two outs in the third inning. The Dodgers did not put a runner in scoring position until Betts singled with two outs in the fifth inning, on the heels of a walk by Taylor. They trailed 4-0 after five innings.
In the sixth, singles by Will Smith and David Peralta gave the Dodgers runners on first and second with one out, and knocked Cease out of the game.
Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez took over and allowed a single to James Outman. When third-base coach Dino Ebel wisely held Smith at third base, the bases were loaded for Taylor. Lopez’s 1-and-1 fastball whizzed over the plate at 98 mph and left Taylor’s bat at 102, clearing the left-center field fence for a grand slam. The announced crowd of 48,655 awoke. The game was tied 4-4.
Taylor’s 11th home run of the season was his first grand slam since July 1, 2017. Curiously, four of Taylor’s first 11 career home runs were grand slams. He did not hit another until career home run number 100 tied the game Thursday.
The job then fell to the beleaguered Dodger bullpen to hold the White Sox down. Miller pitched two scoreless innings after missing the last two days due to a stiff neck. Almonte struck out two of the three batters he faced in the eighth inning. Phillips pitched a scoreless ninth and 10th. Ferguson (4-3) retired the side in order in the 11th.
Taylor single-handedly chased down the final out of the seventh inning on a titillating play.
The White Sox had runners at the corners with two outs. On a double-steal attempt, Elvis Andrus broke for home plate and could not get back to third base ahead of the throw to third base from catcher Will Smith. Taylor caught Smith’s throw, chased Andrus toward home plate, and tagged the runner out at the end of a headlong dive.
Freeman was credited with the walk-off hit, but he acknowledged the win was a group effort.
“As a human, you want to come up big in that situation,” he said. “We all want to be in that situation, the big hit. There were multiple guys who got big hits: Chris, Mookie with the big walk … Miggy getting on base with a base hit.
“There were just a lot of good things that happened tonight.”
