Will Smith had a chance to make history on Friday night, and the Milwaukee Brewers were willing participants, opting to throw to the Dodgers’ catcher with runners on second and third and two outs in the eighth inning, even after Smith had hit a three-homer. runs in his previous four plate appearances.
Smith didn’t become the 19th player in major league history and third in franchise history to hit four homers in a game, but his five-pitch walk off Brewers reliever Elvis pegaro loaded the bases for Freddie Freemanwho hit a clutch, tie-breaking two-run single to center field off left-hander Hoby Milner.
The “Freddie!” chants from a crowd of 49,885 still reverberated around Chavez Ravine when Teoscar Hernandez laced an RBI double to left field to cap a three-run rally that brought the Dodgers within one 8-5 victory from behind.
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Closer Evan Phillips struck out the side in the ninth for his 14th save after scoreless relief innings by Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson as the Dodgers ended a two-game skid.
Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow threw six innings Friday night. He was perfect in the first, second, third and fifth innings and would have completed a perfect sixth if second baseman Gavin Lux hadn’t blocked Garrett Mitchell’s grounder for an error.
He was far from perfect in the fourth, the Brewers putting together all three of Glasnow’s hits, including a grand slam by Rhys Hoskins, in a five-run rally, leaving the right-hander with an odd but unpleasant final line: six innings, three hits, five earned runs, two walks, seven strikeouts.
The rough start continued a disturbing trend for a rotation that was supposed to be the backbone of a championship-caliber club.
In seven games since Gavin Stone threw a four-hit shutout against the White Sox in Chicago on June 26, the Dodgers’ starters have been rocked for 30 runs in 30 innings for a 9.00 ERA, a brutal stretch in which they have given up. Out of 42 hits, he struck out 32 and walked 13.
But thanks to Smith, Glasnow suffered no losses.
Smith gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with solo home runs from Brewers starter Aaron Civale to right-center field in the first inning and left field in the third, giving the Dodgers catcher the third multi-homer game of his career. career.
Glasnow needed just 37 pitches to retire the team in order in each of the first three innings. He threw 31 pitches in the disastrous fourth, which leadoff Brice Turang opened with an infield single. William Contreras walked and Christian Yelich struck out.
Willy Adames hit an RBI single through a huge hole at second base to pull Milwaukee to 2-1, and Mitchell walked to load the bases. Hoskins then crushed a 98 mph fastball on an 0 and 1 count, driving in a grand slam just beyond the reach of center fielder Andy Pages for a 5-2 Brewers lead.
The Dodgers got back into the game in the bottom of the fourth, Pages leading off with a single to left and Miguel Vargas, making his first start in over a week, hitting a 360-foot, two-run home run just to the left of the bullpen gate and over the wall in left field to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Smith then tied the score 5-5 in the seventh by hitting a first-pitch fastball high over the left-field foul pole for his third home run, the 394-foot shot marking the 22nd three-homer game in league history. franchise and the first since Max Muncy hit three homers against Atlanta on May 4.
Right fielder Jason Heyward was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a left knee contusion before the game, but coach Dave Roberts says he believes the team “dodged a bullet” as an MRI test MRI revealed no structural damage to the knee.
Heyward left Thursday night’s game in the second inning after landing awkwardly while trying to steal a home run from Joc Pederson in the first.
“This kind of aligns with a hyperextension [of the knee], so it should take a week or two,” Roberts said. “But just to be safe, we put him on the IL.”
Heyward was replaced in the lineup by James Outman, the center fielder who was demoted to triple-A in mid-May after batting .148 with a .516 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, three homers, 10 RBIs and 40 strikeouts in 36 games.
Outman, who finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting after batting .248 with a .790 OPS, 23 homers and 70 RBIs in 151 games for the Dodgers last season, hit .279 with a .924 OPS, nine homers and 21 RBIs in 38 AAA games.
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Roberts said Outman, a lefty, will play center field when he’s in the lineup, pushing Pages to an outfield corner, and will play primarily against right-handed pitchers.
Heyward’s injury will open up more playing time for Vargas, who entered Friday with a .308 average and .851 OPS despite starting just 11 games since May 18.
Vargas, the team’s starting second baseman before being demoted to triple-A at the 2023 All-Star break and moving to the outfield in Oklahoma City last summer, also began catching ground balls at third base, a position the Dodgers have struggled to fill since Max Muncy suffered an oblique strain on May 15.
“I think this Muncy thing has been a lot slower than we all expected,” Roberts said. “Vargy hasn’t played third base in a while, but given where Max is, it made sense to push [Vargas] and see how it goes to give us another option.
Sunday entry
The Dodgers will call up left-hander Justin Wrobleski, whose fastball sits between 93-96 mph and tops out at 98 mph, to start Sunday’s series finale against the Brewers, according to a person familiar with the move but not authorized to speak. publicly about this.
Wrobleski, 23, was selected in the 11th round in the 2021 draft out of Oklahoma State, was 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 13 starts for double-A Tulsa and 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in two starts for Oklahoma City this season, striking out 79 and walking 16 in 78 total innings.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
