LOS ANGELES _ With every pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday, what was left of a sellout Dodger Stadium crowd got riled up a little more.
By the time Cody Bellinger stepped up and took the fifth and final ball four of the inning, all-out pandemonium ensued, Chavez Ravine wildly celebrating another walk-off Dodgers' win that seemed like it never should have been, this one 5-4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers had trailed since the fifth inning, when they failed to execute a potential inning-ending double play and allowed the go-ahead run to score. In the eighth, they had stranded a runner at second base. In the seventh, a runner was left stuck on third.
But then Diamondbacks closer Greg Holland (1-1) entered the game in the ninth. The veteran right-hander couldn't find the strike zone.
After two quick outs, Chris Taylor fell behind in the count 0 and 2. But then, Holland missed with four consecutive sliders. Russell Martin also fell behind in the next at-bat before working the count full and laying off a slider in the dirt. Pitching coach Mike Butcher tried to settle down Holland, who proceeded to walk Alex Verdugo on five pitches to load the bases. By the time Matt Beaty went to the plate, Holland's command was gone. Four consecutive balls later, he walked home the tying run.
The Diamondbacks summoned T.J. McFarland to face Bellinger, but the All-Star hardly moved. He swung the bat only once, fouling off a 1-and-1 sinker. Then he watched three straight pitches miss the zone and strolled down to first base, calmly collecting a walk-off walk as "MVP!" chants rained down.
"We put on a clinic there in the ninth inning," manager Dave Roberts said. "It shows me what I've already known about our guys. We play 27 outs, we play every pitch, both sides of the ball."
Earlier, it looked as if starter Ross Stripling was going to get stuck with the tough-luck loss.
With runners on the corners and one out in the top of the fifth, Stripling induced a tailor-made double-play grounder. He began walking off the mound, thinking he had escaped the jam.
Instead, Max Muncy's throw from second base was wide, dragging Joc Pederson off the first base bag and into the dirt, and sending Stripling into a state of disbelief. His head dropped. His night was over. Ketel Marte crossed the plate, scoring the go-ahead run.
This time last year, Stripling was hitting his peak. In his final 13 starts entering the 2018 All-Star break, the right-hander had an 8-1 record, 2.01 ERA and 89-to-seven strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has lacked such dominance this season. He entered Tuesday with a 3.08 ERA and only recently returned to the rotation after an injury to Rich Hill last month. Closing in on the halfway point, he's still searching for "the rhythm of a starter," as Roberts said before the game.
In the early innings Tuesday, it showed.
Facing the Diamondbacks for the second time in as many starts, Stripling gave up a two-out run-scoring double to Eduardo Escobar in the first inning and a two-run home run to Nick Ahmed in the second, dropping the Dodgers.
Stripling then showed flashes of his All-Star form last spring, using hard-biting breaking balls to strike out two batters in each the third and fourth innings.
In the fifth, half an inning after Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run home run to left field that tied the score 3-3, Arizona benefitted from a bloop single and a soft liner to get runners aboard. Yet, Stripling still almost did enough to get through the frame unscathed.
"He pitched considerably better than the line score," Roberts said about Stripling. "We built him up. I thought his curveball was really good tonight. His fastball had life."
The botched double-play opportunity was Stripling's last action of the game. After his exit, the bullpen kept the Dodgers close, receiving a sharp 11/3 innings from right-hander Joe Kelly and one inning each from Pedro Baez, Dylan Floro and Yimi Garcia (1-2).
That was enough to set up the ninth-inning rally. The Dodgers mustered only two hits against Arizona's bullpen but exercised patience to come up with their fourth consecutive walk-off victory at home and sixth in their last 17 games.
