LOS ANGELES_Because they have continually secured victories at a respectable pace throughout this season and their rival San Francisco Giants have not, the Los Angeles Dodgers need not worry about winning each of their remaining games. Inside their clubhouse Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, their players discussed the possibility of clinching their forthcoming division title before they leave town Sunday.
And so Brett Anderson drawing Thursday's start against Colorado represented no more than a first-round audition for the fourth-starter role the Dodgers must fill for the playoffs, albeit one set before an unusually windy diorama featuring nearly 50,000 fans.
In the Dodgers' 7-4 comeback victory that culminated in a go-ahead grand slam by catcher Yasmani Grandal, Anderson neither won the role nor lost it. He's most likely to receive a callback, in the form of a start next week in San Diego, at which point the Dodgers should already have clinched their fourth consecutive crown. They are now four favorable decisions away from doing so, between their own wins and Giants losses.
Starting for the first time in a month, Anderson finished five fitful innings. It began better than his first two outings this season, both of which were disastrous. Charlie Blackmon flew out, DJ LeMahieu grounded out, and Nolan Arenado swung weakly at an outside changeup after Anderson set him up with consecutive corner fastballs.
It was one of two strikeouts for the 28-year-old left-hander, whose night went awry in the second, when Carlos Gonzalez whacked his first pitch into center field for a single. Nick Hundley laced a high fastball into the right-field corner for a double, and when Josh Reddick could not recover the baseball right away, Gonzalez scored. David Dahl singled and Stephen Cardullo walked to load the bases, and Daniel Descalso's sacrifice fly scored one run.
Colorado starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood bunted the remaining two men up one base. Then, with two out, Blackmon dribbled a ball just to Anderson's left, and the pitcher tripped trying to pick it up, permitting another Rockies runner to touch home.
Anderson settled into a six-pitch third inning and notched the first two outs of the fourth in five pitches. After a single extended the inning, Anderson induced a routine grounder from Chatwood. Playing second base, Chase Utley fumbled the ball, then frantically picked it up and heaved it behind his back to first. He did not watch the ball's flight, but he recorded the out to amazed applause.
When Utley returned to the dugout, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts congratulated him.
"I can't believe I didn't make the play," Utley replied.
With one out in the fifth, LeMahieu launched a solo shot inches beyond Joc Pederson's outstretched glove atop the center-field wall. Anderson faced two more hitters before Roberts asked four relievers to handle an inning apiece.
"For his first start back, I thought it was pretty good," Roberts said. "Outside of that second inning, I thought he threw the ball well."
Grandal shot a solo homer to left in the second and hammered another baseball that direction in the sixth. It went for a double, and it put two runners in scoring position for Josh Reddick, who brought one in with a groundout.
After Andre Ethier led off the seventh with a pinch-hit double against Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles, Colorado Manager Walt Weiss replaced him with left-hander Boone Logan.
Roberts countered with the resting Justin Turner, who has struggled against lefties this season. He flew out. Yasiel Puig pinch-hit for Andrew Toles and walked. Corey Seager walked. Adrian Gonzalez, too, walked, forcing in one run. Still, Weiss opted not to replace Logan, and, in a 2-and-2 count to Grandal, he plopped a fastball into the middle of the strike zone.
As Roberts excitedly shouted expletives from the dugout's top step, Grandal slammed it for the game-winning grand slam and his fourth hit of the game.
"To see that inning through, I was a little emotional," Roberts said. "What a night he had. Really, what a night."
