A Dodger team full of (walk-off) winners
by Rowan Kavner
After spending the last two mornings handing out high-fives and supplies to kids he visited at local elementary schools, Yasiel Puig spent the last two nights handing out high-fives to teammates, supplying the Dodgers with their 10th walk-off win of the year Wednesday night.
On one of his school visits, Puig stood above a banner that read: “You have to be more disciplined every day to get better and learn the game.” In a post on Twitter, Puig called it his favorite phrase.
It’s also a microcosm of his 2017 season, one in which patience has led to some of the best production of his Major League career.
That patience was a major component of what lifted him from his normal №8 spot to the №6 spot in the lineup this week, and it was on display early Wednesday, as he recorded his 13th walk of the year to move to 50 for the season. Those 13 walks are tied for third in the National League for the most in August, and those 50 walks are more than twice as many as his 24 all of last season.
But the real patience occurred late, and it’s what made Yu Darvish’s 31st birthday in his Dodger home debut something to eventually celebrate in a 5–4 Dodger win that moved them 51 games over .500.
With 37 comeback wins this season already to their name before Wednesday’s ninth-inning began, Cody Bellinger pinch-hit for Kiké Hernández, who earned a start in the clean-up spot for the third time this season after going 2-for-2 with two home runs against White Sox starter Carlos Rodon earlier this year.
Hernández took advantage of that opportunity, adding another home run off Rodon to tie the game earlier in the night. But with Bellinger available off the bench, given the start off for the first time since July 6, he was called upon with one out in the ninth inning after Rodon had already left the game.
Bellinger singled, giving the Dodgers life as they entered the inning trailing 4–2.
They didn’t need to wait long to cut that deficit in half, with Logan Forsythe bringing Bellinger in on his second double of the day. A single followed from Austin Barnes, putting men at the corners for Puig.
A 2–2 count in front of an eighth sellout crowd moved to 3–2 on a close pitch that, maybe earlier in the year, Puig couldn’t have laid off. But the discipline he’s shown hasn’t been sporadic the second half of the season.
“You never want to use superlatives with players, but I think that Yasiel cares as much as anyone, or more than anyone, as far as wanting to be the guy and his care and his try,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Sometimes, over the course of his career, you see him get in the way and he wants to do too much.”
But since the first series in Miami after the All-Star break, Roberts has seen a different guy. After running the count full, Puig fouled off two pitches before taking the eighth pitch of the at-bat into the gap in left-center field.
Knowing Barnes’ speed at first, Puig already lifted his arms in celebration before he ever got to first base, knowing the result was imminent.
An entire baseball team could be fielded with the number of different Dodger players who’ve hit a walk-off this year. With Puig’s game-winning two-run double, he became the ninth different player to walk the Dodgers off with a win in their 10 walk-offs this season.
“It’s someone new every night, which is the craziest part,” Bellinger said.
With the win, the Dodgers ensured Darvish would remember his home debut for the right reasons. Darvish left trailing 3–2, going six innings and allowing three runs, all off solo homers. He struck out two, which marked the first time in his career Darvish, who’s 10th in the Majors this season in strikeouts per nine innings, recorded fewer than three strikeouts in a start.
Darvish went out for the seventh inning but left before throwing a pitch. Both Darvish and manager Dave Roberts said afterward he was dealing with back tightness and was taken out as a precaution.
Roberts said Darvish will be OK and will make his next start. Darvish said through an interpreter after his back tightened up, it was actually Clayton Kershaw who told him to be careful, because the Dodgers will need him in six weeks when October rolls around.
With each passing win, it’s hard for that not to start entering the mind.
“Each game is like a playoff, something special, like a World Series,” Puig said to SportsNet LA’s Kelli Tennant on the field immediately after the win. That sold-out crowd hadn’t left minutes after the walk-off, hanging on Puig’s every word.
As the sound of their cheers started to crescendo, Puig then addressed them: “I’ll see you in the World Series.”
