It looked like the Los Angeles Dodgers were about to suffer a second straight loss at the hands of the New York Mets, but they were able to rally from down 8-3 in the seventh inning, including scoring four runs in the ninth inning, to earn a 9-8 walk-off victory.
With the Dodgers trailing 8-5 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Mets sent All-Star closer Edwin Diaz to the mound to try to close it out. The appearance was Diaz’s second in as many nights.
Joc Pederson led things off and put a great at-bat together against Diaz, resulting in a home run to trim into the deficit. The homer was Pederson’s 16th of the season, with each having come off a right-hander.
Max Muncy then followed with a home run of his own down the right-field line, his 11th of the year. Muncy also took Diaz deep last season when he was with the Seattle Mariners to tie that game, so he obviously sees the ball well from one of the most dominant closers in the league.
Even with the back-to-back home runs to begin the inning, the Dodgers still found themselves trailing by a run. They quickly changed that when Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back doubles to tie the game at eight.
After an intentional walk and infield single, rookie Alex Verdugo stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs, looking to earn his first career walk-off. Verdugo found himself down 0-2 in the count against Diaz, but did not panic and wound up hitting a deep fly ball to left field to bring home the winning run on a walk-off sacrifice fly.
While Dodgers completed the win in the ninth inning, their come back actually began in the seventh. Trailing 8-3, Los Angeles began to chip away. They scored one in the seventh on an RBI single by Turner to drive in Pederson, who doubled.
They then got one more in the eighth inning on Corey Seager’s sixth home run of the season. Seager had a strong night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, the home run and a walk.
