LOS ANGELES — The home runs keep coming for Shohei Ohtani at a deluge. The help on offense was down to a trickle before the flow started just in time Wednesday.
After Tommy Edman delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning, Freddie Freeman saved the day when his game-ending sinking line drive to left field with two outs in the ninth just eluded the glove of Harrison Bader to deliver two runs in a 4-3 walk-off win against the Minnesota Twins.
The Dodgers went from a potential loss to a victory in a matter of inches on the two-run hit, which could have even bigger implications moving forward.
“I wouldn’t say I fixed it,” Freeman said about his swing, which he has battled all season. “There’s a lot of slices and pushes to the left field. It’s a work in progress. But that last one was a lot better. I haven’t hit a line drive to left field in a long time. So hopefully we can build on that going into Friday.”
Ohtani tied a franchise record with a home run in his fifth consecutive game before the bullpen struggled yet again as the Minnesota Twins turned a two-run eighth inning into a 3-2 lead.
The brilliant sunshine only focused a brighter light on the Dodgers’ bullpen issues. Without left-hander Tanner Scott and right-hander Ben Casparius, who both departed games with injuries this week, Kirby Yates was the latest to walk three batters in an inning.
Trying to nurse a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning, Yates put the first three Twins hitters aboard on free passes immediately after entering the game. Alex Vesia got Willi Castro to ground into a double play on his first pitch, but that allowed the tying run to score.
Bader gave the Twins a 3-2 lead with an infield single just over the head of Vesia and onto the grass behind the mound in a turn of events that only highlighted the pain of recent struggles, until the Dodgers found a way to rally in the ninth.
“Right now, where his splitter is at, it’s been noncompetitive and just no command of it,” Manager Dave Roberts said of Yates. “So that’s kind of where he’s at. We gotta keep running him out there, kind of working on some things with the delivery, if that’s what it is.”
One out away from their 12th defeat in 15 games, Mookie Betts barely beat out an infield single. The Twins took a chance and walked Ohtani intentionally to move the tying run to second base. The inning continued to turn when Esteury Ruiz walked on five pitches from Jax to load the bases.
“For me the right answer was we’re going to pitch to Ruiz and go get him and we’re going to play to win the game, not going to be afraid to make a decision,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Jax is one of the best relievers in baseball so I’m going to bet on Jax to go out there, dial it in and pitch to Ruiz. Ultimately it didn’t play out the way we wanted.”
Freeman flipped his game-winning single into left to kick off a celebration on the first-base side of the mound.
Anthony Banda (5-1) came through for a battered bullpen with a scoreless ninth inning to set up the chance at victory.
Even amid a lack of recent team success, Ohtani continued to insert his name among the greats in Dodgers history.
A streak of five consecutive games with a home run has been accomplished five other times in club history. Max Muncy was the most recent to do it in 2019, following Joc Pederson (2015), Matt Kemp (2010), Shawn Green (2001) and Roy Campanella (1950).
That the power show has come while Ohtani has returned to pitching has limited the skepticism on whether high level performance is viable from both sides of his game at the same time.
More will be known when the Dodgers step out of their mild summer in Los Angeles and head into traditional summertime steam baths in Boston, Cincinnati and Tampa for a nine-game trip that begins Friday.
Ohtani moved into the National League lead for home runs with 37, breaking a tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Eugenio Suarez. Also in that tie across baseball was the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, the last to hit a home run in five consecutive games when he accomplished the feat last season.
Only the Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh has more home runs this season with 39.
“I’m sure where he’s at right now, hitting 50 homers is probably on his radar, but I really do believe that he’s trying to just help us win games,” Roberts said. “Like I said a few days ago, he’s just trying to will us to win, and he’s doing whatever he can to help us win.”
In his third start since returning from shoulder inflammation, right-hander Tyler Glasnow has been just what the Dodgers’ pitching staff has needed.
Glasnow returned before the All-Star break and did not allow an earned run over five innings in Milwaukee on July 9. He repeated the feat against the red-hot Brewers on the other side of the break when he gave up one run in six innings on Friday.
In seven innings against the Twins, Glasnow gave up one run on three hits with one walk and a season-high 12 strikeouts. It was his first double-digit strikeout game of 2025 after he had six of them last season.
“Everything was working,” Glasnow said. “Not falling into too many predictable patterns and switching it up early. Physically and stuff-wise, I felt good.”