‘What a game!’: Tigers’ 7-run rally stuns Dodgers
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DETROIT — Gio Urshela hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning after the Detroit Tigers overcame a 9-4 deficit in the ninth as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-9 on Saturday.
Wenceel Perez bunted Ryan Vilade to third to start the 10th. The Dodgers played a five-man infield, but Urshela ruined the strategy by homering to left off Yohan Ramirez (0-4).
“What a game! The whole team, fighting all game,” Urshela said during his on-field, postgame interview on Bally Sports. “It’s a great comeback for us.”
Shohei Ohtani hit his 200th homer and tripled, giving him 233 total bases — the eighth-highest total before the All-Star break since the game was first played in 1933.
Ricky Vanasco started the ninth for the Dodgers but didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced. It was 9-6 when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in closer Evan Phillips.
Phillips retired the first two batters, but Carson Kelly hit an RBI single to make it 9-7 and Colt Keith tied the score with a homer to left.
“He’s been amazing, what a key for the team,” Urshela said of Keith. “We all feel really happy for him.”
The Dodgers saw it another way.
“With a five-run lead, especially the way we’ve been rolling, we have to win that game,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. “We went cutter up and in and (Keith) just got to it. We needed to close out that game sooner.”
Will Vest (2-3) got Freddie Freeman to hit into a bases-loaded double play to end the top of the 10th.
In the first inning, the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead when Ohtani led off the game with a triple and scored when Freeman grounded into a force at second.
Detroit got two runs in the second, with Enrique Hernandez‘s error helping set up Keith’s two-run double, but the Dodgers tied it in the third. They loaded the bases on a walk and two singles. Montero struck out Andy Pages for the second out but walked Chris Taylor to make it 2-2.
The inning could have gotten much worse for Detroit, as right fielder Vilade lost Gavin Lux‘s flyball in the sun, but he recovered to make a lunging catch.
Ohtani led off the fifth with a long homer to right, and Lux made it 5-2 with a two-run single later in the inning.
Vilade and Andy Ibanez led off the bottom of the inning with back-to-back homers. Vilade’s was the first of his major league career.
Cavan Biggio walked in the sixth, took third on an Austin Barnes single and scored the sixth Dodgers run when Ohtani grounded into a force at second.
Hernandez made it 8-4 with a two-run homer in the seventh. Freeman’s sacrifice fly scored Ohtani to make it 9-4 in the eighth, setting the stage for Keith and Urshela to steal the show.
“I threw my [sunflower] seeds on the ground and went out to tackle Gio,” Keith said in his postgame, on-field interview with Bally Sports when asked about his reaction to Urshela’s swing. “That was awesome, one of the best moments of my career so far.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
