The Dodgers bypassed the easy route to victory on Sunday afternoon.
Instead, they took a more dramatic path to a 6-5 extra-innings win against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After leading by four runs early, then squandering the lead behind poor situational hitting and an eighth-inning blunder from the bullpen, the Dodgers regrouped, erased a one-run deficit in the 10th inning on Kiké Hernández leadoff double, then finally prevailed on Teoscar Hernández’s walk-off single — securing a weekend series sweep over the Pirate to grow their narrow National League West lead back to 3 ½ games.
The Dodgers took their four-run lead in the first two innings, scoring twice in the opening frame on a double from slumping catcher Will Smith (his first extra-base hit since July 14) and single from Amed Rosario, before doubling the advantage on Teoscar Hernández’s two-run double in the second.
From there, however, they squandered opportunity after opportunity.
Rosario was caught stealing to end the third. Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández stranded two runners in scoring position in the fourth. Walks from Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas were wasted in the fifth. A two-out Ohtani triple in the sixth led to nothing, as well.
By that point, the Pirates had gotten back in the game on McCutchen’s first home run of the game, a two-run blast off Tyler Glasnow in the third.
And while Glasnow (seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts) held the score there, left-handed reliever Anthony Banda was ambushed in the eighth. Michael A. Taylor legged out a leadoff infield single. Then McCutchen deposited a dead-red fastball into the left-field pavilion, giving his dugout a LeBron-esque shoulder shrug before rounding the bases.
The Dodgers went behind 5-4 in the top of the 10th, when Teoscar Hernández misplayed a ball in left field that allowed Pittsburgh’s automatic runner to score.
However, Teoscar Hernández redeemed himself a half-inning later, following Kiké Hernández’s game-tying double with a two-out, opposite-field single to salvage a game that got much closer than it ever should have been.