Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers runs from first base to second base during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles.
16:26 JST, September 22, 2024
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan McMahon hit a game-tying home run in the fifth inning and the last-place Colorado Rockies rallied after blowing a three-run lead to beat the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 on Saturday night.
The Dodgers’ loss, which won 92 games, means that for the first time since 2014, no major league team will win 100 games, not even counting the 60-game 2020 season, which was shortened by the pandemic.
The Dodgers’ division lead fell to three games over second-place San Diego, which defeated the Chicago White Sox. Los Angeles managed only one hit after the fifth inning.
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani stole his 53rd base in the ninth. He has stolen 30 consecutive hits without being caught since July 23.
“He gets the big lead and it feels like he’s five steps away from second base,” Rockies catcher Jacob Stallings said.
Ohtani, the newly crowned 50-50 king, held on to 52 homers. He singled, walked, scored and struck out on his final giveaway night of the season. The first 40,000 fans in the sold-out crowd of 52,267 received an Ohtani T-shirt. Earlier, his two bobblehead promotions had snarled traffic and created long lines.
The Dodgers loaded the bases against Seth Halvorsen with two outs in the ninth. Ohtani singled and Freddie Freeman and Tommy Edman walked before Max Muncy went down with a strike.
“A really good win for us,” Rockies starter Cal Quantrill said. “At times we’ve struggled to hold onto leads. Our bullpen has been great the last couple of weeks and given me the freedom to pitch the way I want to.”
Halvorsen earned his first major league save, finding out after the eighth that he would pitch the ninth.
“Seth has been super impressive to all of us older guys,” Stallings said. “He didn’t look like his heart rate was racing at all.”
McMahon hit a home run off starter Walker Buehler (1-6), giving the third baseman his fifth consecutive 20-home run season.
Four of the Rockies’ six runs came on two outs and two strikes, including Charlie Blackmon’s two-run home run in the ninth inning against Daniel Hudson.
Fans booed Rockies reliever Luis Peralta (5-3) for hitting Ohtani in the right elbow with a pitch in the sixth inning. Ohtani is not pitching this season as he recovers from elbow surgery he underwent in September 2023.
Colorado led 3-0 on Michael Toglia’s fielder’s choice grounder to Buehler in the first. Buehler’s throw to the plate was too high, allowing Blackmon to score when he doubled and went to third on a wild pitch. Ezequiel Tovar doubled down the left-field line for two runs with two outs in the second.
The Dodgers made it 3-2 on Mookie Betts’ two-run homer in the third inning, scoring Ohtani, who walked. They tied the score at 3 on Hunter Feduccia’s RBI single with two outs in the fourth.
Buehler gave up four runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out a season-high nine and surrendering one hit.
“I think I’ve had some tough moments where I really questioned whether I had what it takes to compete,” Buehler said, “and tonight I felt like I could compete, but I just didn’t make the big pitches in the big spots, or kind of made little mistakes in the big spots, and that’s frustrating.”
Quantrill allowed three runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked four.
“The battle was good,” Quantrill said. “We got the outs when we needed them and we didn’t give up.”
