Walk-off wonders: Dodgers rally to stun Twins

July 27th, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- After falling behind by five runs, capped another thrilling Dodgers comeback by singling home with two out in the bottom of the ninth for a 6-5 walk-off win over the Twins Wednesday night, completing a sweep of their Interleague Series and adding to their five-game win streak.
"J.T. hasn't had a lot of hits lately, but he's feeling good at the plate and any time the game's on the line, I'll take my chances with J.T.," said manager Dave Roberts, whose club has 29 comeback wins and a Major League-best eight walk-off wins.
The Dodgers, who lead Arizona by 12 1/2 games in the National League West, have an MLB record 48 consecutive wins in games which they led at some point and improved to 40 games above .500 for the first time since the end of the 1974 season.
"It's every single guy, it's every single night," said Turner, 4-for-20 on the homestand without an RBI until he lined a 3-2 pitch from into left field after battling back from an 0-2 count, scoring Barnes, who singled with one out as a pinch-hitter.

"It's one of those things where, this is who we are," said Roberts. "People talk about riding the wave and when the wins are going to stop. I think the process is in place and this is the club that plays all 27 outs, it plays to the end."
Twins starter pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed solo home runs to (second in three games) and , whose 19th blast (18 off right-handed pitchers) matched a career high. Pinch-hitter drove Santana from the game with a two-run double off the center-field fence in the seventh inning.
"That big hit from Chase really got us right back in there," Roberts said. "The at-bats in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings were consistent with what we've done the last two months."

The Dodgers tied the game in the eighth inning on 's sacrifice fly after a crucial hit-and-run single by pinch-hitter . Dodgers closer (5-0) pitched around a leadoff double by Max Kepler in the top of the ninth with a pair of strikeouts and was credited with the win.

"When you lose games late, those are the ones that hurt," Kintzler said. "But we'll bounce back. These games will make us tougher. We've been winning them all year, but sometimes you get some hiccups that reset you."
Defense, bullpen let Twins down
Tough-luck Dodgers starter , making a spot start in the wake of 's injury, was charged with five runs, all unearned, in 3 2/3 innings. The top three hitters in the Twins' lineup -- , and Joe Mauer -- drove in all five runs.
The Dodgers bullpen of Jansen, , and allowed two hits and no runs over the final 5 1/3 innings.
"I can't say enough about the bullpen," said Roberts. "We're putting them in tough spots, really with no margin, down five and we couldn't give up any more runs, and to a man they were lights out."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Rough night behind the plate: Dodgers catcher had a hand in making all five Minnesota runs unearned. In the third inning, his errant throw to second base after fielding Santana's sacrifice bunt set up three unearned two-out runs charged to Stewart. And in the fourth inning, his two-out passed ball made the two runs that scored on Dozier's double unearned.
"When things didn't go my way I made some bad two-strike pitches and I've got to do a better job bearing down in those situations," said Stewart. "It's part of the game, it's going to happen and I'm out there to be the stopper when that happens."

Rationing the bullets: Needing a nine-man bullpen because of short recent starts, Roberts had only three position bench players to use but each delivered a productive pinch-hit -- Utley's two-run double in the seventh, Hernandez's hit-and-run single in the eighth and Barnes' single to trigger the winning rally. More >>
QUOTABLE
"He got a pretty good jump on the steal and I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I made the wrong decision clearly. Instincts took over and I went to first and it clearly wasn't the right choice. I have to go with that home. It's my fault 100 percent. It was a terrible situation to do that in." -- Granite on his decision to throw to first instead of home with nobody covering first in the eighth, allowing Turner to score the tying run
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At 12-3, the Dodgers have the best Interleague record in MLB.
Santana scored two runs, becoming the first Twins pitcher to score two runs in a game since Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven on May 5, 1972 against the Rangers. .
WHAT'S NEXT
Twins: The Twins have an off-day on Thursday before heading to Oakland for a three-game series against the A's that begins on Friday at 9:05 p.m. CT. Left-hander is set to make his Twins debut after being acquired from the Braves in a trade on Monday. Garcia gave up three runs over seven innings in a win against the Dodgers last time out.
Dodgers: After a day off on Thursday, Alex Wood resumes the homestand by starting Friday's 7:10 p.m. PT Giants opener. After beginning the season 11-0, he is coming off his first loss, allowing seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings to the Braves.
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