The Detroit Tigers are struggling through a disappointing season. Coming into Saturday’s matinee matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Comerica Park, Detroit was 46–50 and holding fourth place in the AL Central division.
But the Tigers have now won nine of their past 13 games after a exciting comeback walk-off win over the NL West-leading Dodgers.
Gio Urshela hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning off Yohan Ramírez to give Detroit a 11–9 win. The Tigers rallied from a 9–4 eighth-inning deficit, scoring five runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score.
Detroit reliever Will Vest intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani and hit Teoscar Hernandez with a pitch to put the Dodgers in position to take the lead. But Freddie Freeman grounded into a double play to allow Vest to escape with a scoreless inning and set up Urshela’s heroics.
Ohtani hit his 200th career home run in the fifth inning off Detroit starter Keider Montero. His solo shot into the right field corner gave the Dodgers a 3–2 lead. Ohtani batted 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored. He leads the National League with 29 homers, a .314 batting average and 1.037 OPS so far this season.
No other Japanese-born player has hit 200 home runs in MLB history. Earlier this season, Ohtani overtook Hideki Matsui, who was the previous home run leader among Japanese players with 175 homers.
Urshela’s homer was one of four long balls for the Tigers on Saturday. Ryan Vilade, Andy Ibáñez and Colt Keith also went deep. Keith, a rookie second baseman, also hit a two-run double in the second inning, giving him four RBI in a 3-for-4 day at the plate.
Detroit jumped on Dodgers reliever Ricky Vanasco in the ninth, getting three consecutive hits to lead off the inning and scoring two runs. Evan Phillips took over for Vanasco and got two outs, but a Carson Kelly single and Keith’s home run — his ninth of the season — tied the game.
In the 10th, Wenceel Pérez bunted Vilade, the Tigers’ automatic runner, over to third base. Ramírez threw four straight sliders (or sweepers) to Urshela, the fourth of which hung in the middle of the plate and the nine-year veteran crushed it out of the park.
Trevor Thompson caught up with two of today’s heroes, Gio Urshela, who helped the Tigers walk off with an 11-9 extra-innings win over the Dodgers with a two-run home run, and Colt Keith, who tied the game with his own two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th!#RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/kIkhaFlvLs
— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) July 13, 2024
The Dodgers (56–40) are in a bit of a skid, losing five of their past six games after Saturday’s result. That includes a three-game sweep at Philadelphia, in which the Phillies established themselves as the best team in the NL.
Yet despite losing nine of their last 14, Los Angeles still has a comfortable 7 1/2 game lead in the NL West, pending the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night.
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