Gio Urshela hits 2-run homer, Tigers score 7 runs in 2 innings to stun Dodgers 11-9
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Gio Urshela hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning after the Detroit Tigers overcame a 9-4 deficit in the ninth to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-9 on Saturday.
“I don’t know how to appropriately comment on that game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s an amazing feeling to see the guys happy — what a comeback on both sides of the ball.”
Wenceel Perez bunted Ryan Vilade to third to start the 10th. The Dodgers played a five-man infield, but Urshela ruined the strategy by homering to left off Yohan Ramirez (0-4).
“What a game by the whole team,” said Urshela, who didn’t enter the game until extra innings. “They fought so hard and I just wanted to get the runner to home plate.”
Shohei Ohtani hit his 200th homer and tripled, giving him 233 total bases — the eighth-highest total before the All-Star break since the game was first played in 1933.
Ricky Vanasco started the ninth for the Dodgers, but didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced. It was 9-6 when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought in closer Evan Phillips.
Phillips retired the first two batters, but Carson Kelly hit an RBI single to make it 9-7 and Colt Keith tied the game with a homer to left.
“With a five-run lead, especially the way we’ve been rolling, we have to win that game,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. “We went cutter up and in and (Keith) just got to it. We needed to close out that game sooner.”
Will Vest (2-3) got Freddie Freeman to hit into a bases-loaded double play to end the top of the 10th.
The Dodgers have lost five of six while the Tigers have won seven of nine.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead when Ohtani led off the game with a triple and scored when Freeman grounded into a force at second.
Detroit got two runs in the second, with Kiké Hernández’s error helping set up Keith’s two-run double, but the Dodgers tied it in the third. They loaded the bases on a walk and two singles. Montero struck out Andy Pages for the second out but walked Chris Taylor to make it 2-2.
The inning could have gotten much worse for Detroit, as right fielder Vilade lost Gavin Lux’s flyball in the sun, but he recovered to make a lunging catch.
Ohtani led off the fifth with a long homer to right and Lux made it 5-2 with a two-run single later in the inning.
Vilade and Andy Ibáñez led off the bottom of the inning with back-to-back homers. Vilade’s was the first of his major-league career.
Cavan Biggio walked in the sixth, took third on a Barnes single and scored the sixth Dodgers run when Ohtani grounded into a force at second.
Hernández made it 8-4 with a two-run homer in the seventh. Freeman’s sacrifice fly scored Ohtani to make it 9-4 in the eighth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Tigers 1B Mark Canha (wrist) and SS Javier Baez (back) left the game with injuries. Urshela entered the game in the 10th inning to play first base after Ibáñez and Vilarde struggled to play the unfamiliar position.
UP NEXT
The Tigers and Dodgers finish the three-game series on Sunday afternoon, with both teams expected to get nine innings out of their bullpens. Roberts said the Dodgers will make roster moves to have enough arms for the game.
“I think both teams would lobby to play seven innings tomorrow,” Hinch joked. “We’re both pretty beat up with a bullpen game coming.”
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