PHOENIX — Any movie set in a jungle has a scene where the heroes have to pick their way across a rickety rope bridge that threatens to give way at any moment.
The Dodgers are living that each night.
Andy Pages’ two-run home run in the fourth inning gave the Dodgers a lead Wednesday night. Those have been as fragile as the wood slats on that bridge lately. It did not hold – despite 1-2-3 innings from a pair of new relievers, Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers let a three-run lead slip away.
But they climbed back, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-4, in 11 innings.
“We’re kind of making everything exciting at this point. Just getting ready for the playoffs,” said center fielder Tommy Edman, who drove in the winning run with a two-out, two-strike single. “That’s kind of what playoff baseball is like. You’ve got to keep fighting back. There’s going to be things that don’t go your way, balls that don’t bounce your way. You’ve just got to stay with it, keep on fighting and hope the tides turn.”
With the win and a San Diego Padres loss earlier in the day, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is back up to 2½ games and their magic number to clinch the division is down to one. The Padres do not play Thursday, so the only way the Dodgers can clinch before their weekend series in Seattle is by beating the Diamondbacks on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re in the postseason so I’m excited for that,” starting pitcher Blake Snell said. “To clinch tomorrow and win the division – yeah, I’m confident we’re going to do it. I’ve been confident since before the season. So, yeah, I’ll be ready. But the party I want is at the end, the last one. It’s exciting. It’s a good season. But I’m focused on that last one, for sure.”
Snell did what most of the Dodgers’ starters have been doing routinely. He scattered five hits and a walk over his six innings Wednesday. The Diamondbacks only got to him for one run in the first inning after Ketel Marte led off with a double.
Facing big-league hitters for the first time since May 9, Sasaki made his debut as a reliever in the seventh inning and survived his high-leverage baptism. He retired the side in order, getting James McCann on a ground out then striking out Tim Tawa and Ildemaro Vargas.
“Throwing 100 (mph). With a nasty split. Okay, Roki,” Snell said. “I’m so excited for him. That was big. I think everyone is going to be so excited for him. If he can do that, that’s a big help for us, a big threat.”
Sasaki used only his four-seam fastball and splitter, threw eight strikes in his 13 pitches and averaged 99.2 mph on his seven fastballs. As a starter before going on the injured list with a shoulder problem, his fastball averaged 96 mph.
“The two biggest factors is just knowing that I’m healthy and that’s way in the past behind me,” Sasaki said through his interpreter. “Mechanically, being able to finally find a place where I feel really confident with my mechanics.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sasaki “looks like a different person” from the rookie who struggled as a starter in the first months of the season.
“I think that we’ve simplified things (for him) as far as the bullpen,” Roberts said. “It’s an inning or two. I just think there’s a lot more confidence, a lot more conviction and obviously the stuff is up from where it was earlier this year. He’s learned a lot from this season, some of the struggles, not being able to participate, being in Triple-A, the rehab assignment and coming back. He just wants to help.”
By the time Alex Vesia took the mound for the eighth inning, the Dodgers’ lead had swelled by a run thanks to Teoscar Hernandez’s RBI double. Vesia gave that run back, retiring the first batter he faced on a nice play by Pages in left field but then giving up a single, a 10-pitch walk of Geraldo Perdomo and an RBI double to Corbin Carroll.
Edgardo Henriquez took over with the tying runs at second and third. One scored on a swinging bunt single that catcher Ben Rortvedt fumbled, trying to rush back and tag Perdomo at the plate. The next scored on a sacrifice fly.
Kershaw made his first relief appearance since the 2019 NL Division Series against the Washington Nationals. Like Sasaki, he retired the side in order, sending the game into extra innings.
“It’s an adrenaline rush, for sure,” Kershaw said. “I think relieving is just a different animal altogether. You kind of have to figure out how to maintain your heartbeat and get going. But it is a lot of fun, and it’s fun to have success out there.”
Whether Kershaw’s outing was also an audition for a postseason role in the bullpen remains to be seen. He is scheduled to make his final regular-season start on Sunday in Seattle and is not likely to be included in the starting rotation for the two- to three-game wild card series next week.
“I don’t think any of us really know what it looks like in October yet,” he said. “But I had a long time off in between starts, so instead of throwing a bullpen, I just threw it in the game today. I’ll be ready to go Sunday (his final start). But I’m glad I could help out tonight.
“We have six amazing starters. … I can do the math. So if I want to be a part of it in any way, I’ll do whatever they want.”
The Dodgers failed to cash in their free runner in the top of the 10th, when pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim tried to score from second on Mookie Betts’ single to right and was thrown out by Carroll. After intentionally walking two batters to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th, Jack Dreyer and Blake Treinen each got a pop-up to escape.
Tommy Edman’s two-out, two-strike RBI single in the 11th inning gave the Dodgers another lead. Justin Wrobleski – the last of eight Dodgers pitchers used in the game – protected this one with an uneventful inning.
“That was like a playoff game. It was,” Roberts said. “Obviously we’re fighting. They’re fighting (for a wild-card spot). We essentially exhausted everyone on the active roster. Guys made plays and stepped up. We needed it. Every bit of it.”
