After Dozier nearly cycles in debut, Grandal’s homer walks it off in extras
by Rowan Kavner
Brian Dozier’s only played with the Dodgers for a day, but he’s already seen the same number of walk-off home runs as the rest of his teammates at Dodger Stadium in 2018.
Dozier finished a triple short of the cycle in his debut Wednesday, while Yasmani Grandal’s second home run of the night gave the Dodgers their second walk-off win of the season and first walk-of home run of 2018 in a 6–4 win.
“We haven’t swung the bats well the last three games, but I just feel that with the fight still there, sometimes it takes that big hit,” said manager Dave Roberts. “(Yasmani) got that big hit for us. You could feel a little bit of an exhale tonight.”
Each of Grandal’s home runs were significant.
Milwaukee’s Lorenzo Cain, who also finished a hit short of the cycle, scored in the first inning on a triple and a throwing error by Dozier. Another defensive gaffe let Cain come across again two innings later, scoring from second base on a wild pitch Grandal couldn’t find.
Both Dodger players swiftly redeemed themselves.
Brewers starter Chase Anderson was perfect through his first four innings, when the Dodgers’ hottest hitter picked up where he left off in July. Grandal, coming off a month in which he put together 1.215 OPS, launched a solo home run to start the fifth.
“He’s been one of the hottest hitters in the National League for quite some time,” Roberts said.
Dozier, in his second at-bat as a Dodger, took the next pitch out 413 feet to center field. It marked the club’s ninth back-to-back home runs of the year, with this pair tying the game 2–2.
“I love the only 395 to center,” said Dozier, who’s used to it being 404 feet to center field at Minnesota’s Target Field. “That’s a good thing. I’m not used to that. It was cool.”
Afterward, with the crowd still on its feet, he wasn’t sure how to celebrate. He eventually received a curtain call, with some insistence from Kiké Hernández.
“You hear when the crowd gets into it, ‘Ok, it’s that time,’ but being the first game and stuff it’s kind of, ‘What do I do?’” Dozier said. “But I think Kiké kind of grabbed me and said get on out there, so it was cool.”
Dozier was far from done.
From the fifth inning to the eighth, he homered, singled and doubled. After his single in the seventh, he came around to score on a go-ahead RBI single from Yasiel Puig. Hernández followed with a safety squeeze that scored Chris Taylor.
“It was just a great team win,” said Rich Hill, who allowed two runs (one earned) in six innings and has now allowed no more than one earned run in each of his last three starts.
The Brewers would tie the game in the eighth, and the Dodgers quickly threatened to go ahead again. An inning after his single and run, Dozier ripped a ground-rule double to left field, moving Grandal to third. Milwaukee intentionally walked Cody Bellinger to get to Taylor, who pulled a grounder down the third-base line. Mike Moustakas dove, fielded the ball in foul territory and threw Taylor out by less than a step, keeping the game tied.
An inning later, Puig delivered another clutch hit on a double to start the ninth, but he’d also be left stranded.
Extras provided the fun.
“The lineup’s so deep, which is really cool for me to seem” Dozier said. “You have guys that can rake in front of you, behind you. There’s not really a letdown one through nine.”
Dozier nearly got a chance to come up with the final hit for the cycle but was left in the on-deck circle. He’ll take what Grandal did instead.
The bottom of the 10th began with Matt Kemp snapping an 0-for-26 skid on a single to left field to finish an eight-pitch at-bat. Grandal watched from the on-deck circle, knowing what his plan would be against reliever Matt Albers.
“I know he’s got a power sinker,” Grandal said. “He likes to use that change-up down in the zone. For me, my job was to get him up in the zone and hope he made a mistake.”
On a 1–1 count, Grandal saw the sinker again and pulled it to right field for a walk-off home run. His third career walk-off hit and second career walk-off home run gave him multi-homer games in June, July and now August.
Since the start of July, Grandal has raised his OPS 130 points and is now slugging .510 for the year. He tried to downplay what it meant that he’s now leading all National League catchers with 19 home runs.
“Day in and day out, the main thing for me is, when I’m behind the plate, are we winning games?” Grandal asked.
On Wednesday, the answer was yes, as the Dodgers snapped a three-game losing streak with the series finale against the Brewers coming up Thursday.
