Dodgers win in a walk-off as Andre Ethier’s homer in 10th beats Angels
Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier pumps his fist as he rounds first base after hitting a walk-off home run to beat the Angels.
Watching the baseball disappear into the visiting bullpen at Dodger Stadium, Andre Ethier raised his right arm. Then he punched the air with his left.
The celebration was only starting, as his teammates climbed over the dugout railing and formed a semicircle behind home plate that was waiting to engulf him in front of a jubilant near-capacity crowd. The Dodgers beat the Angels again Sunday, this time by a 5-3 margin on Ethier’s walk-off two-run home run in the 10th inning.
“It’s always good when they tie the game and you come back and they tie it again and you come back again,” Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal said. “That’s what good teams do.”
Behind two home runs by Ethier and another by Howie Kendrick, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep in their home segment of the Freeway Series. They improved to 15 games over .500 for the first time this season and extended their lead to 2 1/2 games over the second-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West.
The Angels are headed in the opposite direction, as they dropped their sixth consecutive game. Their deficit to first-place Houston in the American League West now stands at four games after consecutive three-game sweeps by the Astros and Dodgers. The last time they trailed by as many games was on July 4.
“You’re playing against a team that’s struggling, you don’t want to get them going,” Grandal said.
The Dodgers didn’t, in large part because of newcomer Mat Latos, who limited the Angels to a solitary run over the first six innings. Latos, who was acquired three days earlier from the Miami Marlins as part of a three-team trade, allowed four hits.
While Latos’ performance supported the widely held view that the Dodgers properly addressed the shortcomings of their rotation at the nonwaiver trade deadline, the continued troubles of the bullpen did nothing to dismiss concerns about the team’s ability to close out games.
The Dodgers led, 2-1, through seven innings, on the strength of Kendrick’s two-run homer in the third.
Manager Don Mattingly called on another newcomer, Jim Johnson, to pitch the eighth inning.
Because closer Kenley Jansen was unavailable after throwing a combined 50 pitches in the first two games of the series, Mattingly had wanted to save Johnson for the ninth. But with the heart of the Angels order due up in the eighth, the manager elected to use him there instead.
Johnson, who had been closing for the Braves before the Dodgers got him in the same three-team trade that delivered Latos, served up a solo home run to Kole Calhoun that leveled the score, 2-2.
“That was just a bad miss,” Johnson said. “It missed middle-middle.”
Johnson recovered to strike out Mike Trout and induce a ground out from Albert Pujols.
“He’s got nasty stuff,” Grandal said. “That kind of showed right there with Trout and Pujols. I feel it was the first at-bat Trout was actually a little bit uncomfortable at the plate. When you see guys like Trout and Pujols be a little bit uncomfortable with a guy, that means he has something.”
Ethier hit his first home run of the game in the bottom of the eighth, launching an offering from Joe Smith over the center-field wall. It was his 11th home run, but first since June 29.
The newfound 3-2 advantage quickly vanished in the ninth.
Dodgers left-hander J.P. Howell gave up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Shane Victorino. The next batter, Erick Aybar, hit a comebacker. Howell was able to get a force out at second base, but his low throw prevented Jimmy Rollins from turning a double play. Howell struck out Conor Gillaspie, but Aybar stole second base on the third strike.
With right-handed-hitting Chris Iannetta coming up, Mattingly replaced Howell with right-hander Pedro Baez.
The percentages supported the move. Iannetta entered the game batting .245 against left-handers and .179 against right-handers. Right-handed hitters were batting .267 against Howell and .221 against Baez.
No matter. Iannetta drove Baez’s first pitch, a fastball, over the head of center fielder Joc Pederson, bringing Aybar home to tie the score, 3-3.
As Ethier prepared for his 10th-inning at-bat against right-hander Drew Rucinski, his teammates tried to bet him that he couldn’t repeat what he’d done two innings earlier.
Only, of course, he did.
Later, when the celebration subsided, Ethier tried to collect his prize.
“What did I win?” Ethier asked.
The game, he was told.
Twitter: @dylanohernandez
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