LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers dropped their first two games to the D-backs in decidedly lackluster fashion, manager Dave Roberts said his team had looked “unrecognizable” at times this weekend.
The starting pitchers did their jobs, but they had little run support behind them. There were miscues on the basepaths and in the field. As Roberts put it, his team was not playing with much urgency, even with the Padres too close for comfort in the NL West.
The Dodgers had to fight until the end on Sunday afternoon, and their effort was rewarded by one big swing from Will Smith, who came off the bench and went deep to walk off the D-backs, 5-4, salvaging the series finale.
Smith’s four pinch-hit walk-off homers are the second-most in Major League history, behind only Jason Giambi’s six.
“That’s pretty cool,” Smith said. “It’s always [being] ready to go. Not checking out of the game early or whatever. Just doing what you can, just being ready for that spot.”
Until Tanner Scott gave up a game-tying three-run homer to Corbin Carroll in the eighth inning, the Dodgers had been running a familiar formula for success: Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound and cleaner baseball than they had been playing all weekend.
Yamamoto struck out 10 — tying his career high in the Majors, done three times this season — without walking a batter across seven innings of one-run ball. The Dodgers backed him early with a two-run first inning on an RBI double from Freddie Freeman and a run-scoring groundout from Andy Pages, and later added on by building innings in the fourth and fifth.
But another bump in the road for Scott complicated matters. The Dodgers’ de facto closer had logged two scoreless appearances after coming off the injured list, but the location issues that stung him earlier in the year resurfaced.
After getting two quick outs to open the eighth, Scott gave up a bloop single to Geraldo Perdomo, followed by a base hit to Ketel Marte. Then the left-hander caught too much plate on a 1-1 fastball to Carroll.
“You never want to see the ball leave the park. Especially in that situation,” Scott said. “It’s super frustrating. Just got to go out there and fix it.”
Blake Treinen, who closed out August strong after a handful of shaky outings following his own return from the IL in late July, pitched a scoreless ninth to give his team the chance to walk it off.
Smith was up first, pinch-hitting for rookie Dalton Rushing. After fouling off an elevated four-seamer from D-backs right-hander John Curtiss, Smith did not miss the next one over the heart of the plate. He connected and watched for a spell as the ball soared a Statcast-projected 420 feet at 109.2 mph off the bat into the seats in left-center.
Through July, Smith had been the Dodgers’ steadiest hitter. But he entered Sunday hitting .147 with a .568 OPS in August, his first down month of the season.
Even so, Roberts had no hesitation going to his starting backstop.
“I think he’s got a calm heartbeat,” Roberts said. “He’s not afraid to fail. He loves being in that moment. And he’s always a good choice. And has obviously come up with a lot of big hits. That was a big one.”
With 25 games remaining, the Dodgers (78-59) hold a two-game lead over the Padres (76-61) for first place in the NL West. They’re in a decent position despite going 22-27 since July 4, the 10th-worst winning percentage in the Majors in that span.
This weekend’s series against the D-backs was emblematic of what has gone wrong while the Dodgers have played middling ball. Roberts pointed to a lack of focus that has caused his team to neglect doing all of the little things right.
The Dodgers tend to be better in that regard when they play contending teams, but they only have six games remaining against clubs that are currently in postseason position: the Phillies (Sept. 15-17) and the Mariners (Sept. 26-28).
Urgency can’t be manufactured. But the Dodgers’ circumstances are making every game meaningful down the stretch.
“I feel like we made a commitment to be locked in for 25 more games, plus the 20 or whatever we need to play in the playoffs,” Miguel Rojas said. “So I’m confident that this team is going to bounce back from those little mistakes, and we’re going to be focusing on what we need to do, pitch by pitch.”
