by Cary Osborne
Four stars at the top of the Dodger lineup had their season’s microcosm game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. Ideal timing, as fan All-Star voting and player/coaching All-Star voting nears its end.
The top four of Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández each turned in a multi-hit game, each with a big impact hit. It ended with Hernández driving in Freeman in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 6–5 walk-off win in another late-inning comeback for the Dodgers.
“We’re never going to be out of it,” Hernández said. “We’re always going to be fighting until the last out. We’re going to fight every at-bat trying to get on for the next guy, and that’s what we did today.”
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Hernández, one of three Dodger candidates left in Phase 2 of the fan All-Star vote — including Ohtani and the injured Mookie Betts — made a statement on the eve of the close of balloting.
Hernández doubled in a run in the first inning to give the Dodgers a 1–0 lead, he drove in a run in the third to up the advantage to 2–0 and finished the game with a walk-off single against Arizona closer Paul Sewald. Hernández went 3-for-5 in the game.
“Just looking back at his first half, he’s putting a lot of quality at-bats together, and he’s been put in a lot of situations where there’s runners on base, and it really shows his ability to be able to drive in runs,” Ohtani said.
Hernández leads all National League outfielders with 58 RBI.
Ohtani went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run.
The Dodgers trailed 4–3 when he hit a slider from 22-year-old rookie Justin Martinez 433 feet for his 27th homer of the year. The two-run homer gave the Dodgers a 5–4 lead.
Freeman marveled at what Ohtani did with the pitch, right after the Dodger designated hitter took a 100.5 mph fastball for a ball.
“I don’t understand how he’s able to do that. It’s just amazing to watch,” Freeman said. “We’ve seen it over the course of the last few years — his big moments (like) the (World Baseball Classic). Obviously Japanese Heritage Night, he comes up huge again.”
Dodgers Japanese Heritage Night began with a pregame celebration of music, culture and baseball — including the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s press conference earlier in the day at Dodger Stadium announcing Yakyu-Baseball, an exhibit that will explore the wide-ranging exchange of baseball between Japan and the United States. Ohtani participated in the press conference. Then he lifted the Dodgers in the game.
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“Shohei is very storybook,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It seems like whenever there’s anticipation for something to happen, it happens. Guys like that are like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.”
Ohtani, vying for his fourth All-Star selection, said after the game that it looks like he will not be part of the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.
“There’s been some conversations going on. I’m in the middle of my rehab (from offseason elbow surgery) progression. So it’s not going to look like I’ll be participating,” he said.
Ohtani struck out for the second out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Sewald was an out away from closing out the game when Smith doubled.
The Dodger catcher went 2-for-5 in the game and is now 6 for his last 15 after a 2-for-34 stretch. Smith ranks in the NL top two among catchers in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI and OPS, despite the rough stretch.
His clutch double led to Freeman’s clutch double that tied the score at 5–5. Freeman now ranks in the NL top 10 in hits, runs, doubles, RBI, walks, average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
After Freeman doubled, Hernández followed to complete the constellation.
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Dodgers constellation of stars lift the team to another comeback win was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.