LOS ANGELES — In a pinch yet again, of course, it was Will Smith to the rescue.
Smith helped the Dodgers avoid disaster on Sunday with a game-ending pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on a day that began for him on the bench as Dalton Rushing received a day behind the plate.
Smith’s cleats were never far away. Neither was his mentality for aggressive hitting in the clutch.
The fourth pinch-hit game-ending home run of Smith’s career is now the second most all time behind the six from Jason Giambi. Smith barely turned 30 in March.
“That’s pretty cool,” said Smith, who jumped on a second-pitch fastball from right-hander John Curtiss. “Always be ready to go. Not checking out of the game early or whatever. Just doing what you can, just being ready for that spot.”
The Dodgers’ fragile state these days has required complete focus until the bitter end.
On the way to a much-needed victory to avoid a series sweep, they were reminded again in the eighth inning Sunday that willing themselves down the stretch and into a deep playoff run will take more than just caps on heads and gloves on hands.
Left-hander Tanner Scott ran into a buzzsaw with two outs in the eighth inning while trying to protect a three-run lead when Geraldo Perdomo and Ketel Marte singled. Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll followed with a game-tying three-run home run to left field.
“Each night, it seems like there’s something else that is not all put together in one particular game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tanner got two quick outs. And then there was the dump single. And then the first pitch, middle-middle heater to Marte. And then he gets ahead, leaves a fastball middle to Corbin Carroll, and then you got a new ball game.”
Said Scott after his ERA rose to 4.44: “It’s super frustrating. You never want to see the ball leave the park. Especially in that situation. It’s super frustrating. Just got to go out there and fix it.”
The most recent victory did come with a reference to Derek Jeter, whose legendary clutch performances are something manager Dave Roberts would not mind if his team emulated.
Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages each brought home early runs Sunday, with the first-inning total topping what the Dodgers had scored over the first two games of the series combined.
Freeman’s early run-scoring hit was the 544th double of his career, tying him for 34th all-time with the former New York Yankee Jeter and Harry Heilmann, who retired in 1932 after playing 15 of his 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers.
Roberts was mostly in the same mood Sunday morning as he was one week prior, when he called his offense “disjointed.”
“I hate going backward and talking about last year, but when you’re playing a long season, you’re defending champions, people are coming after you, which we know and understand,” Roberts said before the game. “It’s just hard to keep that dialed in focus every single night. That’s just reality. That’s human nature.
“It’s not from lack of preparation or effort. It’s just kind of the human part of it. But there has to be a point where that has to be sharpened. And that’s where I feel the time is now.”
The message seemed to be received when Shohei Ohtani singled to lead off the bottom of the first inning, and Mookie Betts followed with his own single. Freeman’s double over the head of center fielder Alek Thomas made it 1-0. A Pages’ groundout brought home Betts.
The Diamondbacks broke through against Yamamoto on Adrian Del Castillo’s RBI single in the fourth inning before the Dodgers responded immediately on a two-out RBI single from Miguel Rojas in the bottom of the inning.
The Dodgers made it 4-1 in the fifth inning on a Pages RBI single.
Yamamoto continues to hum along, all while tying a career high with his 26th start. He gave up one run on four hits with no walks.
Yamamoto also had 26 starts in 2021 and 2022 with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. But while he had 193 innings in each of those seasons, he is at 146⅔ innings this season, while tracking toward as many as 30 regular-season starts.
“Since the beginning of the season, even in spring training, I have been maintaining my condition physically and mentally,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “And mechanically it goes (astray), but I just work things back to where they should be. That’s why I have been able to perform at this level.”
The bottom of the order Sunday included Alex Call, Alex Freeland, Rushing and Rojas, with Freeland and Rojas each contributing two hits.
“It’s always important to get a W,” Rojas said while wearing his team-issued sweatsuit in advance of the flight to Pittsburgh. “Getting away from home for a week, we’re going to continue to face these teams that are kind of scrappy, and they’re gonna continue to play baseball throughout the month of September.
“So we got to continue to focus in on what we need to do to get better every single day. I think today was a step in the right direction after getting beat the first couple days. I’m looking forward to these couple of series on the road.”