Los Angeles Dodgers: Recalling an Uncanny Walk-Off
By James Barone
The Los Angeles Dodgers made history by walking off in this fashion against the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this week. Find out how.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona’s closing pitcher Gregg Holland is on the mound and has already retired the first two batters.
Facing Chris Taylor, he is way ahead in the count with 0-2 and getting Taylor out seems inevitable as does a win for the Diamondbacks. Who would have guessed that history was about to be made again, and not in a good way for the Diamondbacks?
No one is on base and the next pitch to Taylor just misses the corner. Still, no problem its 1-2 and Holland needs just one more. The next pitch by Holland starts a chain of events that is almost unbelievable and has never been done before in baseball.
Taylor evens up the count to 2-2 and Holland decides to throw two consecutive sliders, both down in the dirt. Taylor walks which sparks a Dodgers rally the like of which baseball has not witnessed in 45 years.
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That’s right, not since 1974 when Lee Majors first appeared as the $6 million dollar man and Watergate was on the front page of every newspaper.
Now let’s get back to the game.
Holland walks Russell Martin on a full count, can this really be happening?
The winning runs are on base. Alex Verdugo walks and the bases are full and loaded to repeat history. Matt Beauty then stunningly walks to bring in the tying run while the winning run is lurking on third with the bases still full.
The fans at Dodgers stadium cannot believe what they are seeing is truly happening.
The Diamondbacks make the call to the pen and bring in TJ McFarland with the bases loaded and winning run on 3rd, all the momentum is with the Dodgers. A tough situation for McFarland indeed.
To add to this catastrophic situation for the Diamondbacks, All-Star Cody Bellinger is at the plate and is poised to win the game using his .345 batting average and amazing hitting skills. McFarland fights hard to bring the count to 1-2. Yet, amazingly, like the Diamondbacks were cursed by Johnnie Walker himself, McFarland shoots himself in the foot by throwing three consecutive balls walking in the winning run.
Not only does this incredible turn of events make the Dodgers the first team to walk off on five straight walks in 45 years, but it is also the first time in Dodgers history that they had walk-off wins in four consecutive home games.
Matt Beauty, Alex Verdugo, and Will Smith all hit walk-off home runs in their previous home series against the Rockies.
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Although the Dodgers made history during this disastrous last inning, it is no time to gloat when a good man is down. Ross Stripling, Dodgers starting pitcher could feel Holland’s pain stating, “As a pitcher, you feel for him. You don’t want anybody to go through that. You want us to take it from them and not him basically hand it to us on a silver platter.”