Yas! LA adds walk-off rally to dream season

August 17th, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- 's two-run double in the ninth capped a three-run rally as the Dodgers added another chapter to their magical season with a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory over the White Sox on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, completing a four-game season sweep of the Interleague set.
The Dodgers improved their Major League-best record to 85-34 and have not lost a series since June 5-7 and have won 50 of their last 59 games. 's one-out pinch-hit single started the rally, and followed with a double to bring Bellinger home, cutting the lead to 4-3. ' single put runners on the corners, and Puig ended an eight-pitch at-bat with a game-winning knock that gave the Dodgers their MLB-leading 10th walk-off win.
"We were down by two," said Kiké Hernandez. "But two runs is not enough for us. I don't think there's a big enough lead right now to be like, 'All right, the Dodgers are out of the game,' especially the way we've been coming from behind all year long. It's just an everyday thing now."
Puig goes from the soaker to the soaked

The rally gave more of a reason to celebrate after his 31st birthday and home debut didn't go as planned. The right-hander gave up three solo homers in his six innings, and he had fewer than three K's for the first time in 75 starts, punching out only two. Darvish came out to pitch the seventh, but after a mound visit with team trainers, manager Dave Roberts decided to pull him out of the game for righty . Roberts said Darvish's back had tightened up after the sixth, but he is fine and will make his next start.
"A little bit of what we saw in Arizona, the fastball command just wasn't quite there," Roberts said about Darvish's night. "The stuff was good. The damage was with the homers and just missing with the fastball, and that's about it. The stuff is good."
White Sox lefty held the Dodgers to two runs on five hits with four strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings, and his offense didn't waste time getting his back. For the second straight game, the White Sox homered on the first pitch of the game, with cranking Darvish's 93-mph fastball off the right-field foul pole.
Sox homer on 1st pitch in 2nd straight game

"What a great outing," said White Sox manager Rick Renteria on Rodon, who has a 2.35 ERA through three August starts. "We sent him back out there [for the eighth], and he did a nice job. We talked about it before: trying to throw strikes, trying to stay consistent, trying to locate things. He did a very nice job against a very good hitting ballclub."
Roberts went with Hernandez in left field on Wednesday because he hit two homers off Rodon when the Dodgers faced the White Sox in Chicago on July 19. Hernandez didn't disappoint, smashing a home run in the fourth inning.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
White Sox can't close it out: The White Sox, who in the past two weeks have traded proven closers and , used three relievers -- Gregory Infante, and Jake Petricka -- to try to close out the game in the ninth. Infante got on a flyout, and Renteria went to Bummer when Bellinger came on as a pinch-hitter. Petricka relieved Bummer after Bellinger's single and gave up three straight hits.
"They're riding very high on confidence, and they should be," said Renteria of the Dodgers. "They're very capable of doing what they did tonight. For us, it's just trying to give our guys the best shot to have some success. We try to give them the best matchups you can and, hey, you roll the dice and see what happens."

Nicky's stick:Nicky Delmonico, who entered the game with one career homer, went deep twice. The White Sox rookie went 3-for-4 with a homer off Darvish, and he hit his second long ball in the eighth inning off left-hander Tony Watson. He reached base in each of his first 13 big league games, a club record.
"It was awesome," Delmonico said. "Playing in front of fans like that, it felt like a playoff game to me."
Delmonico adds 2-homer game to historic rise

QUOTABLE
"When you look at what we've done, certainly every time [opposing teams] see us on the schedule they're going to bring their best. Absolutely I think that our guys have set the bar for the league, and rightfully so." -- Roberts

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Garcia's leadoff homer marked the second night in a row the team homered on the first pitch of the game, with doing so in Tuesday's loss. It was the first time the team homered on the first pitch in back-to-back nights in franchise history.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
In the top of the third, Garcia hit a grounder to second baseman Forsythe, who fired to second to start an attempted double play. Garcia was ruled safe at first base, but the Dodgers challenged the call, which was overturned after review.

WHAT'S NEXT
White Sox: will make his second start in a White Sox uniform Thursday at 7:05 p.m. CT in the opener of a three-game series against the Rangers at Globe Life Park. Lopez, ranked by MLBPipeline.com as the team's No. 6 prospect, allowed two runs on four hits through six innings while striking out six Royals on Friday in his White Sox debut.
Dodgers: The Dodgers get Thursday off before heading to Detroit for a three-game series with the Tigers beginning Friday. Left-hander Rich Hill gets the ball to start the opener, with first pitch slated for 4:10 p.m. PT.
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