After Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday pitched five hitless innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rafael Marchon hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer off Blake Treinen with two outs in the ninth inning for a 9-6 win.
Brandon Marsh had a two-run homer and Max Kepler added a solo shot in a six-run sixth for Philadelphia. Ohtani’s 50th homer leading off the eighth helped the Dodgers tie the game 6-6.
The Phillies erased a 4-0 deficit against Justin Wrobleski in another stunning collapse by the Dodgers bullpen.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / USA Today
Philadelphia rallied for four runs in the seventh and eighth innings and another in the 10th on Monday to clinch their second straight National League East title with a wild 6-5 victory.
Ohtani struck out five and walked one, throwing 42 of 68 pitches for strikes in his 13th mound start of the season and 99th of his major league career. He retired his final 13 batters.
The Dodger Stadium crowd of 44,063 groaned at the sight of Wrobleski coming out of the bullpen, knowing Ohtani was done.
The groans turned to boos when the left-hander loaded the bases with three consecutive one-out singles before Bryce Harper doubled to center on the first pitch, scoring two runs. Marsh followed with a three-run homer to right and the boos intensified as manager Dave Roberts came to take the ball from Wrobleski with the Phillies leading 5-4.
Twelve of the Dodgers’ past 19 losses have been charged to relievers, and they are 6-14 in their past 20 games decided by one run.
“They’re lacking confidence,” Roberts said. “They’re not making good pitches when they need to, a little careful at times.”
In Missouri, Cal Raleigh hit a pair of homers to match the Seattle Mariners season record set by Ken Griffey Jr and break Mickey Mantle’s MLB record for the most homers by a switch-hitter in a season.
The 28-year-old American smacked his 55th homer of the campaign, a 419-yard (383m) solo blast down the right-field line in the third inning, to break the former New York Yankees star’s mark from 1961.
Raleigh followed that up with his 56th homer of the season in the fourth inning, a two-run round-tripper to center field to give the Mariners a 9-1 lead on their way to a 12-5 victory, the club’s 10th consecutive win to seize the American League West division lead at 83-68, one game atop the Houston Astros.
“I feel like my name shouldn’t be in the same sentence with those guys, Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr,” Raleigh said. “I don’t really have words for it. I don’t know what to say. For now, just keep it going.”
Elsewhere, the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1, the Athletics pipped the Boston Red Sox 2-1, the New York Mets defeated the San Diego Padres 8-3, the Cleveland Guardians survived the Detroit Tigers 7-5 in 10 innings, the Milwaukee Brewers drowned the Los Angeles Angels 9-2 and the St Louis Cardinals blanked the Cincinnati Reds 3-0.
The Yankees held on to beat the Minnesota Twins 10-9, the Boston Orioles overcame the Chicago White Sox 8-7, the Toronto Blue Jays withstood the Tampa Bay Rays to win 6-5, the Astros squeezed past the Texas Rangers 6-5 and the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 6-3 in the early game, before winning again 5-0 in 10 innings in the late game.
The Miami Marlins edged the Colorado Rockies 6-5, while the Arizona Diamondbacks toppled the San Francisco Giants 6-5 for their fourth consecutive win.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with AFP