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The crack of Shohei Ohtani<\/a>\u2019s bat punctuated a riveting contest in early May with another indelible moment of on-demand magic.<\/p>\n \u201cYou guys have heard me say how many times?\u201d teammate Max Muncy<\/a> marveled. \u201cSho keeps getting put in these spots that you expect the incredible \u2014 and he rarely disappoints.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed,\u00a0with two on and one out and the score tied in the ninth, Ohtani completed a wild six-run rally with a go-ahead three-run home run deep to right field.<\/p>\n It lifted the Dodgers to a 14-11 win<\/a>, one that felt impossible after they squandered a five-run lead earlier in the game. It left Ohtani seemingly trying to lift off himself, stretching his arms and flapping his hands after chucking his bat and gliding up the first-base line.<\/p>\n Up to that point, Friday\u2019s intradivision shootout already featured everything else.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Wild lead changes and sudden momentum shifts. Line-drive rockets and towering home runs. Even the ejection of Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior, when a bad ball-strike call contributed to his team\u2019s mid-game collapse.<\/p>\n Most of all, however, there was Ohtani \u2014 meeting yet another moment, rising once again to the occasion.<\/p>\n “For us to score a lot, for them to come back, for us to come back again,\u201d Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, \u201cit was a game with a lot of passion.”<\/p>\n Added manager Dave Roberts<\/a>: \u201cHe sees his teammates fighting and guys trying to keep us in the ballgame, so that was kind of the climax of that moment. It’s good to see him show emotion like that. It was great.”<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Ohtani was having a big night before the ninth, doubling twice during an early offensive onslaught that gave the Dodgers (26-13) an 8-3 lead.<\/p>\n The Diamondbacks (20-19) responded, scoring eight unanswered runs over the next five innings to flip the score in their favor, 11-8.<\/p>\n Four batters into the ninth, however, the Dodgers had tilted the seesaw again.<\/p>\n Shohei Ohtani, right, celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the ninth inning against Arizona on Friday. (Darryl Webb \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n A leadoff infield single from Freddie Freeman<\/a> was followed by consecutive run-scoring doubles from Andy Pages<\/a> and Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, trimming what was an 11-8 deficit to 11-10. Muncy knotted the score with a single to right. Then, when Michael Conforto<\/a> was hit with a pitch with one out, the Diamondbacks faced a decision.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Arizona could have pitched to Ohtani carefully, and risked a walk that would have loaded the bases but also set up a force out at every bag. Instead, they replaced closer Kevin Ginkel with sidearm right-hander Ryan Thompson, letting him attack the reigning National League MVP in hopes that his funky delivery could keep Ohtani off balance.<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t. In a 1-and-2 count, Thompson threw a splitter that stayed up over the middle. Ohtani clobbered it 426 feet to the right-field bleachers. The sound off the bat alone left little doubt about where it would land.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween him and Barry Bonds, they\u2019re the two best players I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Roberts said, when asked if Ohtani\u2019s heroics ever cease to amaze. \u201cI played with Barry. But what Shohei does in the clutch \u2014 I\u2019ve never seen anything like what he does in the clutch.\u201d<\/p>\n Shouting across the room in the Dodgers\u2019 postgame clubhouse, backup catcher Austin Barnes summed it up even more succinctly.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThe monster,\u201d he yelled, \u201ccomes through again!\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: Dodgers continue \u2018to bet on\u2019 Michael Conforto, but can he break unthinkable early slump?<\/a><\/p>\n Even before first pitch, Friday had the makings of a high-scoring affair.<\/p>\n Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, the veteran left-hander who two seasons ago blocked<\/a> an agreed-upon deadline day trade from Detroit to the Dodgers, entered the night with a 5.92 ERA and was facing a right-handed-heavy Dodgers lineup, with slumping left-handed sluggers Muncy and Conforto on the bench.<\/p>\n Roki Sasaki<\/a>, meanwhile, was pitching on five days of rest (as opposed to six) for the first time in his career. He was throwing in a dry Arizona climate that can often influence the execution of breaking pitches. And, as a result, there was added importance on a fastball that has disappointed so far this season, averaging well below the triple-digit readings he was hoping to rediscover.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Right from the jump, the Diamondbacks took advantage.<\/p>\n While Rodr\u00edguez gave up one run in the first inning after a leadoff double from Ohtani, Sasaki was ambushed for three. Ketel Marte hit a solo home run around the right-field foul pole. Eugenio Su\u00e1rez belted a two-run blast.<\/p>\n The homers were the fifth and sixth that Sasaki has given up in his last five outings. And all of them have come against his fastball, a pitch that has yielded a lot of hard contact while getting very little swing-and-miss \u2014 including no whiffs Friday.<\/p>\n “Just really still in this process of finding out what the root cause [is],\u201d said the 23-year-old right-hander, who finished giving up five runs in four-plus innings to raise his ERA to 4.72.<\/p>\n The Dodgers had an answer in the second, tying the game on Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s sixth home run of the season and Ohtani\u2019s second double in as many innings.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Then, in the third, the Dodgers seemingly took control of the game, exploding for five runs on four hits and three walks while sending 11 batters to the plate \u2014 in an inning where the three outs were recorded by Ohtani, Mookie Betts<\/a> and Freeman no less.<\/p>\n In his first at-bat of the inning, Freeman roped a double down the line to put two runners in scoring position. Pages followed with a two-run single to left. Hern\u00e1ndez and Miguel Rojas loaded the bases with a single and a walk. Still with no one out, James Outman hit the ground ball Arizona was looking for, but an errant throw to the plate allowed two more runs to score. Betts later tacked on a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n That should\u2019ve been enough for the Dodgers, carrying the ensuing 8-3 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n But on this night, no lead was ever safe.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Sasaki was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk in the fifth, the lead having been trimmed to 8-4 by that point. His replacement, Anthony Banda, failed to stem a turning tide.<\/p>\n Within three batters, the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded. With two outs, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. swung big at a down-and-in sinker. Banda turned to watch it fly for a tying grand slam, evening the score at 8-8.<\/p>\n Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr., left, pumps his fist after hitting a grand slam off Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda, right, during the fifth inning Friday. (Darryl Webb \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt that the offense did enough to win the game at that point in time, and to not pitch well, it’s frustrating,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI just feel that we’re better than we’ve pitched.\u201d<\/p>\n The Diamondbacks\u2019 go-ahead run scored amid more contentious circumstances, as right-hander Luis Garc\u00eda tried to escape another bases-loaded, two-out jam he inherited from Banda in the sixth.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In a full count with Su\u00e1rez, he threw a high sweeper that appeared to catch the top of the strike zone. Home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak, however, ruled it a ball that walked in a run.<\/p>\n After the inning, Prior barked at Rehak from the dugout, triggering his ejection. Roberts then ran toward Rehak for an animated talk.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some pitches that swung counts, and certainly that Luis Garc\u00eda at-bat to Su\u00e1rez, that changed that inning, the scoreboard,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt gets emotional, always. And so obviously, it’s nothing personal. You can’t argue balls and strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n In the eighth, it was the Diamondbacks’ turn to seemingly put the game out of reach, hitting back-to-back home runs off Alex Vesia<\/a> for an 11-8 lead.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n But, once again, no lead on this night ever proved to be secure.<\/p>\n Especially not once the Dodgers got Ohtani back up to the plate.<\/p>\n![\"Shohei](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/c58d1eb7c644701d12e64199811a2856.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Arizona](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0b293fc969dd44c92b0a73c80aac59d9.jpeg\"\/)
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