The wins are rare and not so easily attained for the Dodgers at this specific moment in the season. And hosting the Royals, it took all that this team had to outlast the opposition in a 6-5 victory in a back-and-forth matchup with multiple lead changes, ultimately decided on a Freddie Freeman RBI single.
Allowing a run in the first, Tarik Skubal didn’t deliver a lights-out performance, but how a pitcher handles outings with some form of adversity can often be the true measure of him. The Royals were
relatively lucky to get on the board early on with a softly hit single from Nick Loftin that found the right spot—followed by an RBI knock from Jac Caglianone on a groundball that should’ve found a Dodger glove but didn’t, as Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts didn’t react well enough to make a play. Those two singles were enough for the run because once Bobby Witt Jr. replaced Loftin on the basepaths after a forceout, he showed off his speed by swiftly stealing second, his AL-leading 32nd SB.
It would not be the only time Caglianone would hurt Skubal, as a couple of innings later, he would hit a two-run shot on a hanging slider to hand the Royals a 3-0 lead. What was particular about that at-bat was the unpredictable attack plan of Skubal versus Caglianone, with the slider being the fifth different pitch he threw to Caglianone. The problem is that unpredictability can only do so much if hangers are coming to the plate.
Laboring a bit more than he is used to per inning, Skubal established a very high pitch count in the first few frames, allowing him to just complete five, not before getting the final laugh on Caglianone, though. Caglianone came up to the plate with two on and two out in the fifth with the chance to do the most damage in this one. Skubal gave him a recipe of nothing but heaters that laid the groundwork for a strike three swinging on a changeup down and in, a dangerous pitch to throw to the tall lefty, but one that worked out.
Chasing the game from the start, the Dodgers didn’t spend a lot of time trailing by those three runs, answering the Royals’ two-run third with two of their own in the bottom of the frame. The lefties provided the big hits against Noah Cameron as a Shohei Ohtani RBI double was followed by a Freddie Freeman single to make it 3-2.
Tommy Edman’s hustle in the sixth inning on both sides of the ball is in many ways what paved the way for the Dodgers’ three-run rally that gave them the first lead of this game. Firstly, Edman made a terrific play in left, diving to catch a fly ball from Starling Marte.
A few minutes later, Edman hustled to leg out an infield single in the bottom of the sixth, and a Miguel Rojas double later, Cameron got the hook with two in scoring position and just one out. Kyle Tucker pinch hit for Teoscar Hernández with the righty John Schreiber coming into the game, and walked, which brought up the Dodgers’ most clutch hitter as of late to the plate. Once again, Max Muncy delivered in a time of need with a bases-clearing double.
In normal games throughout the regular season, this momentum shift would be enough to carry the Dodgers to a win, but right now nothing is coming easy. The Royals decided that two can play the quick-answer game, managing to tie things up at 5-5 in the next half-inning. Just like Skubal against Caglianone in the third, Jack Dreyer left a slider up against Kyle Isbel and saw the left-handed hitter just clear the right-field wall. It was only Isbel’s fourth homer of the season.
The good news was the Dodgers were facing one of the two bullpens in baseball with an ERA above 5.00, and it clearly showed once Cameron’s night was done. The Dodgers regained the lead in the bottom of the seventh despite some self-imposed challenges. Ohtani was stealing second with Andy Pages at the plate when the center fielder was punched out looking on a bad call that couldn’t be challenged due to previous ill-advised challenges from Rojas and Pages himself. Luckily, Freeman didn’t let that mistake linger for too long by driving in Ohtani to make it a 6-5 game.
The Dodgers could not score insurance runs after that, but they didn’t need to as the bullpen provided shutdown innings to secure the win, including an encouraging one-two-three ninth from closer Edwin Díaz.
Monday particulars
Home runs: Jac Caglianone (21), Kyle Isbel (4)
WP —Jack Dreyer (5-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
LP — Alex Lange (1-7): 1 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout
Sv — Edwin Díaz (6): 1 IP, 1 strikeout
Up next
Looking to improve on a shaky season debut against the Braves, Blake Snell gets the ball against the best the Royals have to offer in Michael Wacha. It’s the same place, same time, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. (PT).
