LOS ANGELES – This Sho goes on … and on.
Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning Sunday afternoon, pulling the Dodgers all the way back from a four-run deficit to beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5.
Ohtani’s home run was his fourth hit of the game to go with two stolen bases. He now leads the National League with 53 home runs and has 55 stolen bases.
Down 5-1 in the seventh inning, the Dodgers scored three times that inning on a two-run home run by Kiké Hernandez and an RBI single by Freddie Freeman – set up by Ohtani’s second stolen base of the game.
Two innings later, Ohtani led off the bottom of the ninth with his home run, turning to the dugout and pointing at his teammates as he jogged up the first-base line.
Three pitches later, Betts won the game with his walkoff home run.
The rally kept the Dodgers from taking a two-game losing streak into their showdown series with the San Diego Padres beginning Tuesday. The Padres remain three games back in the NL West and the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the division is down to four with six games to play.
The rally also covered for a poor start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Charlie Blackmon flew out deep to right field to start the game. The next five batters reached base against Yamamoto – three singles and two walks – leading to three runs. He walked another batter in the second inning then gave up another run in the third on a double and a single.
Yamamoto’s poor command led to 79 pitches in the first three innings, ending his day early. Eight of the 17 batters he faced reached base. He has yet to go past four innings in his three starts since returning from a strained rotator cuff.
But he has plenty of company in the Dodgers’ depleted rotation. Over their past 13 games (during which the Dodgers have gone 6-7), starting pitchers have gone just 49 ⅔ innings with a 6.52 ERA – not counting Ryan Brasier’s scoreless first in Friday’s bullpen game – putting the Dodgers in the kind of hole the Rockies dug for them Sunday on a regular basis.
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