The day started with a couple of Shohei Ohtani home runs. It continued with a strong 5 ⅔ inning start from Clayton Kershaw. And it ended with the Dodgers in a celebratory postgame line, trading victorious high-fives near the mound.
After five consecutive losses, several weeks of mounting frustration, and the most painful collapse imaginable the night before, the Dodgers took a crucial first step toward righting their sinking ship on Sunday.
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They beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, finally finding a way to hold on to a late-game lead.
They ended an otherwise disastrous road trip on a sorely needed high note, avoiding what would have been a second-consecutive series sweep to a last-place opponent.
Read more: Yoshinobu Yamamoto falls one out short of a no-hitter, then Dodgers lose in Orioles walk-off
“It’s not a surprise how we responded,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There was no panic. There was just preparation. I like the way that our guys weren’t downtrodden. We were up, looking forward to playing a ball game, to win a game. And that’s a tell that we have confidence still in the room. It speaks to the character.”
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Indeed, Sunday was the kind of day the Dodgers (79-64) were desperately searching for amid their recent struggles, which reached a new low when their no-hitter turned walk-off nightmare on Saturday trimmed their division lead down to just one game.
That game, in which Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth before the Orioles (66-77) rallied for a stunning walk-off win, was the kind of loss that threatened to throw the Dodgers into an all-out nose-dive; an unthinkable defeat that, on top of their previously mounting frustrations, turned Sunday into yet another gut-check for the long-slumping club (which entered Sunday 10 games under .500 since July 4).
“It was a tough loss yesterday,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “Especially what Yoshi did, everybody was so excited and happy for him. And to lose, that was tough. So it was pretty down.”
Sunday morning, however, Betts said the mood in the clubhouse had rebounded.
Shohei Ohtani, right, celebrates with Freddie Freeman after hitting a home run in the first inning Sunday against Baltimore. (Terrance Williams / Associated Press)
“There’s a lot of vets in here and a lot of guys that know how to handle bad situations,” he said. “So this morning everything was great. The vibes were high.”
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And then, two pitches into…