Ohtani's Go-Ahead Single Never Left the Infield
The Dodgers ended a seven-game slide with the least cinematic winning hit available. That modest little ground ball is precisely why the play is worth another look.
The ball never left the infield. The losing streak did. In the top of the 10th inning at Chase Field on August 8, Shohei Ohtani hit a ground ball toward first, Kyle Tucker scored from second as the automatic runner, and the play was recorded as an RBI infield single. Los Angeles led Arizona 2-1. At last, that lead survived.
MLB's official recap calls Ohtani's hit the difference maker in a 10-inning win that ended seven consecutive Dodgers losses. The Gameday record confirms the August 8 matchup and 2-1 final. Searchers looking for a towering Ohtani highlight have found something better: a superstar accepting a very small opening.
Eight scoreless innings made every foot count
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Brandon Pfaadt kept the game empty deep into the evening. Pfaadt allowed only two infield singles, both to Andy Pages, plus one walk over seven scoreless innings. Yamamoto worked 5 2/3 scoreless frames on 107 pitches, striking out six while allowing three hits and three walks. A separate Dodgers report on his start notes that Evan Phillips stranded the two runners Yamamoto left in the sixth.
Kyle Tucker finally broke the seal with a solo homer leading off the eighth. That looked enormous for roughly an inning. In the ninth, Edwin Díaz allowed consecutive triples that tied the game, then stranded the possible winning run at third with nobody out. It was a narrow escape, not a clean one. The Dodgers had watched Díaz surrender a walk-off homer on August 7, so the empty space between third base and home must have felt unusually crowded.
The winning play was baseball in lowercase
Extra innings began with Tucker placed on second under the automatic-runner rule. Ohtani's grounder did not clear a fence or split two outfielders. It stayed down, found grass and brought Tucker home. The official language, RBI infield single, sounds almost bashful beside Ohtani's usual verbs. That is its charm. A week of late-game trouble ended because a runner moved 180 feet and a ball traveled considerably less.
Jack Dreyer supplied the exclamation point
Left-hander Jack Dreyer allowed a one-out infield single in the bottom of the 10th, then started the double play that ended the game. After the final throw reached first, MLB reported that he roared and pounded his glove. Dreyer described it as the most emotion he had shown. That humane little detail survives because relief pitchers do not get to celebrate until they are certain nobody will ask for another inning.
The seven-game slide was over, but nobody needed to pretend the Dodgers had solved every late-inning problem. They had simply made three useful things happen in order: Tucker started in scoring position, Ohtani put the ball where a defender could not finish the play, and Dreyer finished his. Tiny hinges can swing a heavy week.
Sources
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