Lux saves the day, Dodgers win 5-4

One of those things that always seems to happen is a player will make a great defensive play and then immediately be up to bat in the following half-inning. Well, today, Gavin Lux had a different fielding play in mind when he stepped up in the bottom of the ninth.

The Dodgers were trailing 4-3 and Lux knew that the Phillies would not have scored at all if he didn’t make an error to extend the second inning. So with that in mind and runners at the corners, Lux had his chance to make amends.

Chris Taylor, who was on first base and had already stolen a base, took off and Lux was able to pull the ball into the right-field that not only scored the tying run, Taylor scored standing up to win the game. The loss went to former Dodger Corey Knebel who avoided this same fate on Friday.

It was the Dodgers first one-run win and it was also the first time they had won after trailing past six innings. Shane Greene picked up the win, it was his first victory since September 25, 2020 when he played for the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers had selected Greene’s contract prior today’s game.

Before the excitement of the ninth inning, this game had avoided a lot of offensive explosion of the first three games. Was this because Bryce Harper, whom the Phillies had already said was going to be off today, did not get a chance to homer in every game this weekend. We’ll never know.

But instead, Aaron Nola did show up and had the best pitching performance for either team this weekend. Nola pitched seven innings, allowed two runs, four hits, a walk and eight strikeouts.

Michael Grove pitched well especially given he probably should have gotten out of the second inning unscathed. Grove ended up with a no-decision with 3⅔ innings pitched, four hits, four unearned runs and three walks. Alec Bohm will always be the first player Grove struck out.

Manager Dave Roberts had to put together a bullpen plan after Grove was taken out and his choices did not give up a run. Phil Bickford, Alex Vesia and Yency Almonte each had a scoreless appearance before Shane Greene pitched the final two innings to get the win.

Finally, there’s a saying that momentum in Major League Baseball is your next starting pitcher but l’d have to believe that at least for now, the Dodgers will come back tomorrow feeling much better about themselves than they would have if they had not walked-off today.

And they still remain in a tie for first-place.

Sunday particulars

Home runs: Mookie Betts (7)

WP — Shane Greene (1-0): 2 IP, 2 hits, 1 strikeout

LP — Corey Knebel (0-3): ⅔ IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk

Up next

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks will next play a 4-game series in three days with a day/night double-header in the middle and closing with a Wednesday matinee.

Tomorrow evening, Tony Gonsolin will start for the Dodgers and he’ll face the crafty left-handed Madison Bumgarner. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. and it will be carried on SportsNet LA.