Muncy sac fly puts end to Dodgers 4-game slide
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Max Muncy lifted a Shelby Miller fastball into the air, then raised his left hand and pointed upward. His 10th-inning sacrifice fly had capped a three-run frame that triggered the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ fourth walk-off win this season, a 4-3 thriller over the division rival Arizona Diamondbacks.
It felt slightly bigger than that.
“It was kind of a big game for us,” Muncy said. “We were definitely in a slide.”
The Dodgers were coming off four straight losses at home, their first such losing streak in seven years. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto had responded by delivering seven masterful innings, providing the type of start an injury-riddled pitching staff was clamoring for. As Tuesday’s game played out, winning it became increasingly more crucial.
It took absorbing a game-tying homer from D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno in the ninth, then coming back from down two runs in the bottom of the 10th — by which point Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had exhausted almost all of his options out of the bullpen.
“We needed a win bad,” said Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott, who surrendered home runs in the ninth and 10th innings. “Luckily we have a pretty good lineup, so it saved us.”
What the Dodgers needed more than anything, though, was a good start.
Yamamoto took the mound after giving up eight runs in 11 innings over his previous two outings, putting a damper on his early-season dominance. Three members of the Dodgers’ rotation — Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell — resided on the injured list with shoulder injuries. Over the previous four games, the starters who essentially replaced them had combined for a 9.60 ERA. A bullpen that has five high-leverage relievers hurt and leads the majors in innings was ill-equipped to pick up the slack.
With the Dodgers desperately needing a deep, effective start, Yamamoto carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and shut out one of the sport’s most potent offenses through seven. He allowed just three baserunners — two on walks, one on a hit — and struck out eight.
The D-backs trailed by only a run in the seventh and threatened. Ketel Marte led off with a long single. Yamamoto followed by uncorking a wild pitch, then walked Moreno with two outs. But the Dodgers kept him in to face the right-handed-hitting Pavin Smith, and Yamamoto struck him out with his 110th pitch, the most he has thrown since coming to the United States.
“I just felt, right there in that moment, he was our best option,” Roberts said of the decision to leave Yamamoto in the game. “And it’s not about pitch count, it’s not about third time through — it’s about he’s our best option. And I felt, with where our club is at right now, we need to give him the best chance to get out of that inning. And he proved all of us right.”
Yamamoto fixed what Roberts described as a timing issue with his delivery coming off his last couple of starts. He leaned on his curveball more than he had all year but generated at least two swings and misses with four of his pitches. By the end of it, his ERA had dropped back down to 1.86 through 10 starts, trailing only countryman Kodai Senga (1.43) for the National League lead.
“I’m glad because I was able to contribute to today’s win,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “I’d like to continue bringing my contribution to the team.”
The Dodgers seemed poised for their fifth straight loss when Corbin Carroll deposited Scott’s 10th-inning fastball over Dodger Stadium’s left-center-field fence. But the Dodgers came all the way back in the next half inning.
Tommy Edman, who was supposed to have the day off until he was called on to pinch hit in the eighth, led off with an opposite-field double on a pitch well outside. With first base open, the D-backs intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani even though he represented the go-ahead run. After a Mookie Betts fly ball put runners on the corners, Ohtani stole second base, prompting an intentional walk of Freddie Freeman to load the bases. Will Smith was then hit by a pitch, bringing in the tying run. Then Muncy ended it with a sacrifice fly to straightaway center field, giving him five career walk-off plate appearances.
It marked the third time the Dodgers had won a game this season despite trailing by two or more runs in the ninth inning or later, tied for the major league lead.
“We put some at-bats together, man,” Roberts said. “And it was much-needed.”
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Greg Wyshynski
RALEIGH — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said his players have to be smarter about retaliating against the Florida Panthers‘ trademark agitation.
“We know that’s how they do things,” he said on Wednesday, after Florida took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-2 win. “Find a way not to let that get to you. Stick to what is going to win us games.”
At issue for the Hurricanes in Game 1 was center Sebastian Aho‘s roughing penalty against Florida’s Anton Lundell at 6:59 of the first period, which negated a Carolina power play and led to Carter Verhaeghe scoring the first goal of the game on a Panthers’ power play. Aho took a swing at Lundell after the Panthers center cross-checked him. The referees whistled the retaliation but not the initial stickwork that provoked it.
“I mean, the first penalty is bad call, right? You’re going to have those. But that’s my thing: Retaliation penalties are not going to get it done,” Brind’Amour said. “We did a pretty good job with [retaliation], but it just takes one. That’s my point. You can’t have that one, because that really puts you behind the game and now it’s different.”
The Hurricanes are 5-0 when scoring first in the playoffs and 3-3 when they don’t. Carolina’s penalty kill had stopped 14 of 15 power plays at home and 28 of 30 overall in the playoffs until Game 1, when Florida went 2-for-3 with the man advantage.
“They made us pay. It’s a good team that knows how to score goals and finds way to win games when you make mistakes,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “We’ve got to limit those mistakes.”
Another example of the Hurricanes’ retaliation, though a less costly one for Carolina, came in the third period when defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere deliberately shot a puck at Florida forward Brad Marchand. In this case, the Panthers got the worst of it, as Marchand was given a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Just heated. I was pretty pissed off. He tried to take a run at me. I shot the puck at him. We had a little [tussle],” Gostisbehere said.
After Game 1, neither Panthers players nor coach Paul Maurice would discuss the incident in detail.
“It happens. It’s what it is. I mean, we block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said.
That attitude extends to the Panthers’ composure on the ice. While the Panthers have earned their reputation as an irritating, physical opponent — attributes that helped them win the Stanley Cup for the first time last season — they can dish it out and take it.
Look no further than the Florida crease in Game 1, where the Hurricanes crashed the net of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with frequency. At one point, forward Andrei Svechnikov‘s hip collided with Bobrovsky’s head. But the goalie wasn’t knocked off his game and his team didn’t retaliate.
“It’s OK. It’s the playoffs. They try to get under the skin. I just focus on my things and try not to think about that,” Bobrovsky said after his Game 1 win.
Maurice praised his netminder’s composure.
“Sergei’s not a kid. He’s been through it. He’s been bumped. He’s just developed a skill set that it just doesn’t bother him,” the coach said. “No one likes getting elbowed in the head, but it won’t be the first time or the last time.”
Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals is Thursday night in Raleigh. The Hurricanes have now lost 13 straight games in that round of the playoffs, including five straight to the Panthers.
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