PHOENIX _ Manny Machado walked down the first-base line, his eyes tracking the parabola which just burst off his bat, in the final inning of a 7-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The baseball soared toward the Chase Field fence, an insurance salvo taking flight. Machado admired the shot until his sense of pride morphed into urgency: The ball wasn't going to clear the wall.
Machado dropped his bat and started to sprint. He arrived at second base, the owner of an RBI double rather than a home run. At this point, the Los Angeles Dodgers will take it. Can one at-bat be a metaphor for a season? After months of fits and starts, the team must sprint through the finish line in order to hold off Colorado and win their division.
Five games remain for the Dodgers (88-69). The team may need to win every one of them in order to capture their sixth consecutive National League West crown. The Dodgers can clinch with any combination of five victories and Rockies defeats. Except Colorado has won four in a row since being swept out of Dodger Stadium last week, and their schedule looks favorable. The Dodgers may have to do this all on their own. They took care of business on Monday after a stumble by their ace.
Clayton Kershaw logged six innings but could not solve Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte. Marte punished Kershaw for three separate run-scoring hits: A triple in the first inning, a home run in the third and a go-ahead single in the fifth. Kershaw struck out six before departing with the Diamondbacks in front.
His teammates picked him up in the seventh inning. Yasiel Puig and Max Muncy each contributed a crucial single as pinch hitters during a two-run rally to reclaim the lead. Muncy added to the lead in the ninth after taking a leadoff walk and scoring on a wild pitch from Arizona reliever Yoshihisa Hirano. Machado followed him with a double soon after. Hirano lost another wild pitch, which permitted another run to score.
Colorado blitzed the Philadelphia Phillies at Coors Field on Monday to keep the race tight. The Rockies will finish with six games at home, three against Philadelphia and three against Washington. Neither opponent will qualify for the playoffs.
Then again, neither will the Diamondbacks nor the San Francisco Giants, the final two teams on the Dodgers' schedule. The Dodgers arrived at Chase Field to face a team in free fall. Arizona led the division on the final day of August. They proceeded to drop seven of their first nine games in September, a streak which began with a pair of heartbreaking losses at the hands of Matt Kemp in Dodger Stadium.
The Diamondbacks were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday after being swept by the Rockies. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo responded on Monday by sitting his two most productive hitters, Paul Goldschmidt and David Peralta. The Dodgers still had to contend with left-handed starter Robbie Ray, who had struck out nine in a victory in Los Angeles on Aug. 30.
"It seems like he always brings his best against us," manager Dave Roberts said before the game. "Each time I've seen him, he's pretty much had his way against us."
The Dodgers stressed Ray in the first inning before letting him off the hook. Chris Taylor led off with a single, and soon moved into scoring position after a wild pitch by Ray and a groundout by Justin Turner. David Freese splashed an RBI single into right field to give Kershaw an early lead. The advantage stayed at one when Kemp struck out with the bases loaded and Brian Dozier lined out for the third out.
Kershaw stumbled in the bottom of the inning. After a single by third baseman Eduardo Escobar, Marte smashed a drive into right field. Kemp lunged but could not pull down the ball. Escobar scored on Marte's triple. Kershaw recovered to strand Marte and keep the game tied.
Marte stung Kershaw again in the third. Kershaw tried a 1-0, 90-mph fastball. The pitch split the plate. Marte hammered it well beyond the fence in left-center field for a solo shot to put Arizona in front.
Freese tied the game in the fifth. Turner had softened up Ray, forcing him to expend 11 pitches before flying out to left. Freese capitalized three pitches later on a belt-high fastball, sending it over the right-field fence for an opposite-field solo shot. Ray finished the inning, but his outing was over after throwing 100 pitches.
Once more, Kershaw stumbled when given support. He yielded a one-out double to outfielder Chris Owings. The hit set up another opportunity for Marte. Kershaw tried an 88-mph fastball inside. Marte rolled a single up the middle, past the dive of Machado, for a go-ahead single.
The Dodgers answered in the seventh with a two-run surge. The sequence started with a walk by Yasmani Grandal. Roberts sent speedy rookie Tim Locastro to run for the catcher. Puig came off the bench with a single against Arizona left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin. Muncy followed with a game-tying single off right-hander Brad Ziegler.
A mistake by Ziegler kept the rally alive. Ziegler failed to cover first base on a dribbler down the line from Freese. The infield single loaded the bases. Machado grounded out but avoided the double play to bring home Puig to give the Dodgers the lead.
