LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia gave up the tying run to the San Diego Padres in the eighth inning and was told he was out of the game.
A defiant Vesia said no.
He went to manager Dave Roberts and told him he wanted the ball again in the ninth if the Dodgers regained the lead. They did, on Mookie Betts’ tiebreaking homer
, and Vesia was back on the mound facing the Padres’ top three hitters.“It’s one of those moments where you got to just trust your player,” Roberts said,
“and I trusted him.”
Vesia induced pop fouls from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez before striking out Manny Machado to end the game. Vesia screamed in celebration as the crowd roared.
The 5-4 victory extended the Dodgers' lead over the Padres in the NL West to two games. San Diego arrived in Los Angeles with a one-game lead along with a five-game winning streak. The Dodgers came in on a four-game skid.
They improved to 8-2 against the Padres this season with their first three-game sweep of San Diego since May 12-13, 2023. The Padres got swept for the first time since May 20-22 at Toronto while getting outscored 14-6.
“We know as a group how good we are and last three games it’s shown,” Vesia said. “We put our heads down and we're going to keep going.”
The teams face each other again starting Friday in San Diego.
“What I saw was urgency,” Roberts said. “The way we played is what we should expect.”
Vesia had been in a funk in August, with a 7.20 ERA in seven appearances and opponents hitting .353 against him.
He gave up an RBI groundout to Jose Iglesias that tied the game at 4 in the eighth.
Then Betts rescued the Dodgers with the 394-foot shot to left-center off Robert Suarez. It was the shortstop's 13th homer of the season and just his fifth since June. Betts had 25 in 2022 and 39 in 2023.
“Finally I did something good for the boys,” Betts said. “I feel like I’ve done a decent job with the glove, but with the bat I haven’t really done much.”
Dogged by injuries, slumping offense and bullpen woes in recent weeks, the Dodgers saw their nine-game division lead evaporate earlier in the week. They have 1 1/2 months left to get themselves in a stronger position to open defense of their World Series championship.
“The last three days we sort of performed and not just talked about it,” Roberts said, “so that was really good to see.”
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