From the verge of history, to the depths of horror.
The kind of unimaginable nightmare even these slumping Dodgers could have never possibly fathomed.
One minute, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the precipice of a no-hitter, needing just one more out to put his name in the history books. The next, orange Baltimore Orioles jerseys were sprinting around the bases; a night destined for a storybook ending, instead going so wrong, so fast.
“It’s hard to recount a game like this, where you feel like there’s so many things where you can get a little bit of momentum, build off a great outing by Yoshinobu, and take that into tomorrow,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“And then, obviously, it completely flipped.”
Indeed, entering the ninth inning at Camden Yards on Saturday night, the outcome of the game never appeared to be in doubt.
The Dodgers were leading by three runs. The last-place Orioles had hardly threatened all evening. And the only real question was whether Yamamoto would complete the 24th no-hitter in the franchise’s illustrious history.
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He couldn’t, giving up a wall-scrapping home run to Jackson Holliday.
Still, the somber mood around the team — which had lost four straight games, six out of seven and was nine games under .500 going back to July 4 — had finally seemed like it was starting to lift.
At that point, all the Dodgers needed was simple.
“One flippin’ out,” as reliever Blake Treinen bluntly put it.
The out, however, would never come. The victory, somehow, wouldn’t be sealed. In one of the most stunning finishes you could ever script, the Dodgers collapsed in a sequence almost impossible to comprehend.
They didn’t just lose 4-3 to the Orioles.
They sent their already spiraling season to a new, and even more painful, nadir.
"Obviously it's really hard to swallow,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter, after striking out 10 batters, walking only two and giving up just the one, fateful hit. “But the only thing we can do is, we've got to get together, put things together, and overcome it."
Added Roberts: “It’s certainly a wasted opportunity [and] performance, from what Yoshinobu did.”
The implosion started with a pitching change, as Roberts went to remove Yamamoto after a dazzling and dominant 8⅔ innings.
The right-hander had been in cruise control, with his fastball playing up and his command (outside of two third-inning walks that were erased by a double play) spot on. Even the home run to Holliday came on a decent pitch, an inside cutter that the former top prospect lifted just deep enough over a short wall in right center — where Andy Pages curiously pulled up instead of attempting to rob it.
“I just felt he deserved the chance to get a no-hitter,” Roberts said. “I felt that the guys were feeling it for him, were pulling for him. And I wanted it bad for him.”
But, with both the no-no and shutout dashed, and Yamamoto’s pitch count up to 112, Roberts wanted to extend him no further. Thus, as Yamamoto left to a chorus of cheers, Treinen came trotting out of the bullpen.
“I felt that we pushed him far enough,” Roberts added. “We gotta be able to get one out.”
Treinen came close to getting it against his first batter, pumping two quick strikes past rookie outfielder Jeremiah Jackson. But then Jackson battled back, working the count full. And when Treinen left a sinker over the plate, Jackson belted it to left for a double.
One on. No panic. Still one out to get.
Two batters later, the alarm bells started ringing. With two strikes against Gunnar Henderson, Treinen yanked a sweeper that hit him. Then, in the next at-bat, a wild pitch advanced the two tying runners into scoring position.
Two on. Concern level rising. But still one out to get.
“He’s got swing-and-miss stuff, but it was hard to find the zone,” said catcher Ben Rortvedt, a journeyman deadline acquisition who had only been called up from the minor leagues on Thursday, and was only behind the plate because of injuries to Will Smith and Dalton Rushing.
“It’s hard to come in in those spots. I’m sure the bullpen was probably tuned in on every pitch and was pushing for him to go the full way.”
However, Treinen countered, “that’s not an excuse for how I performed.”
After the wild pitch, Treinen walked Ryan Mountcastle to load the bases. A mound visit at that point failed to settle him down, with another walk to Colton Cowser forcing in one run and prompting Roberts to finally make another move to the bullpen.
“Blake Treinen has been in some of the toughest spots that any relief pitcher can imagine,” Roberts said, in explaining why he gave the right-hander as much leash as he did. “I have hard time believing that any spot or moment is too big for him.”
The same did not apply to the Dodgers’ new pitcher, embattled closer Tanner Scott. The previous night, he’d given up a walk-off homer to clinch what felt like another low point of the season. Now, he faced Orioles third baseman Emmanuel Rivera with the crowd going wild.
Bases loaded. Lead down to 3-2. But, still, just one out to get.
Scott missed low with a first-pitch fastball. He evened the count with another heater down the middle. The 1-and-1 offering was well-placed, a 97.4 mph four-seamer well below the bottom of the zone. But Rivera got his bat to it, sending a line drive into center for a two-run, walk-off single.
“Put somebody else in a position that they shouldn’t be in,” Treinen said. “I have to get one flippin’ out, and I didn’t do it.”
Indeed, it was all supposed to go so different.
Before the game, Roberts had gathered his scuffling clubhouse and implored them to loosen up and not try to be perfect. He saw so many of signs of it in the first eight innings, from not only Yamamoto but a lineup that produced 10 hits and manufactured runs in three different innings.
It was the first time on this trip the Dodgers (78-64) — who now lead the National League West by just one game over the San Diego Padres, after they ended a five-game losing streak with a win on Saturday in Colorado — had held a lead at any point of a contest.
It was the first time in weeks they seemed to play with energy, life and some sustainable confidence.
One more out, and it could’ve been a turning point in the season.
“There’s really no words,” Treinen said. “You’re paid to be a professional and at least throw strikes, and I didn’t do that. Cost one of the better outings I’ve ever seen in my career with Yama. He deserves better than that. Offense deserves better than that. Just really sucks to be on that end of it. ... That’s a pretty low point for me."
And, of course, for the team, as well; the game ending so shockingly, so disastrously, Roberts couldn’t even describe his sinking club as snake-bitten, just continuing to squander opportunities to win games they should.
“When you walk two guys and you can’t put guys away, it’s hard to say you’re snake bit,” Roberts said. “You make your own breaks. And [Treinen] wasn’t good tonight. Very uncharacteristic, but it happened.
“We gotta be able to get one out. We just got to do it.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
