Confident Dodgers rack up comebacks

July 29th, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- Alex Wood had two thoughts when he left Friday night's game in the seventh inning. He was irritated for allowing the Giants to take a two-run lead, but equally eager to see what his offense could do about it.
"It's nice when you come out losing 4-2 and know that with our lineup, they'll score a couple of runs," said Wood, selling short an offense that erupted for a four-run seventh and a 6-4 win over the Giants that turn defeat into Wood's 12th win of the season. The Dodgers also extended their MLB record of winning 51 consecutive games in which they led at some point.
"Where do I start?" said Wood, who became the winning pitcher when 's second homer of the game snapped a 4-4 tie. "It literally is a different guy every night and tonight it was Corey. Been a lot of fun to watch."

The Dodgers have 30 comeback wins, well short of the franchise record of 53 set in 2004, but they trailed in each of their last five wins.
"We don't panic," said Seager, which goes along with manager Dave Roberts' pregame response when asked if the late-inning drama was some kind of magic.
"I believe there is something with the dynamic of the players, the clubhouse. Good things do happen and they manifest from thoughts and things that happen earlier in the season," Roberts said. "This is a special team and special things are happening."

And after the game, Roberts continued the theme, going beyond the two home runs from Seager to cite several winning elements that might have gone underappreciated.
He mentioned , who has earned increasing playing time with a grinding, hustling play exemplified in three walks, a stolen base and two runs. He mentioned a clutch game-tying RBI double from Chris Taylor that preceded Seager's game-winner. He mentioned a situational ground-ball RBI from pinch-hitter to tie the game at 4. He mentioned an overpowering eighth-inning hold from , who struck out a pair. And he didn't forget a three-strikeout save from , No. 26, with one of his liveliest cutters of the year.
"It was a team effort with big-time plays from big-time players," said Roberts. "I said the other day, this is who we are. I can tell you we're going to come from behind and play 27 outs. This is who we are."
"I think we have a confidence," said Barnes. "We have a really good lineup, obviously, one to eight. It's hard to keep us quiet one through eight any night."