Dodgers blow 5-run lead but come back to beat Marlins in 10 innings

LOS ANGELES — This business of defending a championship is not for the faint of heart.

An innocent bystander as the Dodgers blew a five-run lead in the middle innings, Tommy Edman came off the bench as the offense hibernated into extra innings then came through with a two-run walk-off single that retrieved a 7-6 victory over the Miami Marlins in 10 innings on Monday night.

“I was telling the coaches earlier tonight, it just seems like we’re a .500 team just kind of given what’s going on,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think we’re a game behind the best record in the National League. It doesn’t feel like that, but I think that’s a good thing as far as, there’s no complacency with our ballclub.

“All the stuff that we’ve gone through with having the inconsistencies with the offense, some hiccups sometimes with the defense, with the injuries, and still to be where we’re at. So I think that that’s a bad sign for the rest of the league.”

It might feel like they’re a .500 team because they kind of are. Since starting the season better than any defending World Series champion ever has (8-0), the Dodgers have barely won more than they’ve lost (11-10). Only two of those first eight wins were one-run decisions. They’ve played nine one-run games in the 21 since and Monday was only their fourth win in those games.

“I feel like we play against a lot of scrappy teams,” Edman said. “We got up 5-0, and then they scrapped together that five-run inning. You’ve got to fight for every win. It’s not easy winning games in the major leagues. Every team you play has a lot of talent, and you just got to stay focused throughout the game, regardless of what the score is. We’ve done a good job of it, even though we’ve made some games close, and done a good job pulling out a lot of wins.”

Things were going well through five innings. Dustin May had a three-hit shutout going and the Dodgers had scored in four of the first five innings, pecking away against Marlins starter Edward Cabrera for nine hits and three walks.

Shohei Ohtani led off with a single in the first inning, stole second, moved to third on a flyout then scored on Freddie Freeman’s RBI single.

In the third inning, Max Muncy and Miguel Rojas singled back-to-back and Ohtani walked to load the bases. With the infield in, Mookie Betts singled to left for one run. That was all the Dodgers got as Cabrera dug in to strike out Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez before Will Smith flew out.

Andy Pages singled and stole second in the fourth inning and scored on the second of Rojas’ three hits in the game, a double – his first extra-base hit of the season, producing his first RBI. Ohtani drew the second of his three walks but Betts lined out to strand the two runners.

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough – who received his 2024 World Series championship ring from the Dodgers before the game – called it a night for Cabrera after he gave up a two-run home run to Teoscar Hernandez in the fifth.

Not getting more out of those third- and fourth-inning situations went from irritating to costly when the night changed in the sixth.

The first three Marlins reached against May, a run scoring on Eric Wagaman’s single. After a fly out, Roberts pulled May whose dissatisfaction with himself was as obvious as the red hair on his head.

“I wanted to execute more throws and I really didn’t. I got away with a lot of stuff,” May said of bouncing back from allowing seven runs on 10 hits in five innings at Wrigley Field in his previous start.

“I mean, they (the first five innings) didn’t really go that well. I still wasn’t executing very well at all. I just got away with some stuff. They hit some stuff at guys. They hit balls very hard off me tonight. I left a lot of stuff over the middle.”

Roberts brought in lefty Anthony Banda to face lefty Kyle Stowers. But McCullough responded with back-to-back right-handed pinch-hitters Connor Norby and Dane Myers. Norby worked a walk to load the bases and Myers drove a game-tying grand slam into the left field pavilion.

“I just felt right there to get those guys to the other side of the plate, I felt Banda hadn’t pitched in four days and we needed him to be better,” Roberts said of the May-to-Banda move. “He just wasn’t on it tonight.”

The Marlins took the lead for the first time in the top of the 10th when Jesus Sanchez drove a two-out RBI double into the right-center field gap.

After going 3 for their first 7 with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers went 0 for 6 and had just two hits over the next five innings. But they put two runners on to start the 10th inning. Kiké Hernandez bunted them into scoring position and Edman lined the first pitch he saw into right field, driving both runners home.

“It’s always our goal to win every single game – but especially these ones,” Rojas said. “We’re not saying that we’re playing little teams or anything like that. We’re just trying to keep piling up W’s. And I think this is a stretch where if we play good baseball and we play Dodger baseball … I think we can win a lot of games and put ourselves in a good position for down the road.

“The month of April has been up and down for us. Even though our record is good, we feel like we haven’t really hit the gear that this team can hit. And we’re looking forward to unleash that.”