Jason Heyward hammered a pinch-hit three-run home run to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night to break a tie score and lift the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners before a crowd of 48,395 in Chavez Ravine.
The third pinch-hit homer of his 15-year career may have also helped save Heyward’s job with the Dodgers, who will soon have to decide who utility man Chris Taylor replaces when he comes off the injured list, with Heyward, outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and utility man Kiké Hernández the most vulnerable players.
The score was tied 3-3 when Will Smith was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth and Max Muncy walked. Tommy Edman struck out, but Heyward turned viciously on a 99-mph fastball at the top of the zone from Mariners reliever Anthony Munoz and sent a 108-mph laser over the short wall in right for a 6-3 lead.
The Dodgers had trimmed a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 when Gavin Lux and Muncy each hit solo homers in the fourth, Lux sending a 390-foot shot to center field to continue his torrid one-month stretch and Muncy driving a 407-foot shot to the back of the right-field bullpen for his second homer in two games since returning from an oblique strain.
Lux was batting .211 with a .556 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, three homers, eight doubles and 24 RBIs in 79 games through July 19. In 29 games since, the second baseman hit .372 (35 for 94) with seven homers, 10 doubles and 21 RBIs, raising his season average to .254 and his OPS to .713.
The Dodgers tied the score 3-3 in the seventh when Edman led off with a double to right-center and scored on Mookie Betts’ clutch two-out RBI double to left.
Freddie Freeman was walked intentionally, and Teoscar Hernández lined a single to right field, but Seattle outfielder Mitch Haniger air-mailed a throw to catcher Cal Raleigh in time to nail Betts at the plate to end the inning.
Five Dodgers relievers — Alex Vesia, Ryan Brasier, Anthony Banda, Joe Kelly and Daniel Hudson — combined to give up only one hit in five scoreless innings behind struggling starter Walker Buehler, as the Dodgers maintained their National League West lead of three games over San Diego and four games over Arizona.
Buehler needed three pitches to record two outs and 79 pitches to get 10 more, which is a pretty good indication of how Tuesday night went for the right-hander, who is struggling to find some semblance of his pre-surgery form.
Buehler labored through a four-inning, three-run, seven-hit, 82-pitch start in which he struck out one, walked three and struggled with his command, his second straight shaky outing since returning from a right hip injury last week.
Buehler returned from his second Tommy John surgery in early May and went 1-4 with a 5.84 ERA in eight starts in which he gave up 10 homers in 37 innings. He hurt his hip in mid-June and spent several weeks of his two-month absence at a private training facility in Florida in an effort to “get those feels back.”
But when he returned in Milwaukee on Aug. 14, he needed 87 pitches to record 10 outs in a 3 ⅓-inning effort in which he gave up four runs — one earned — and three hits, struck out three, walked four and threw first-pitch strikes to seven of 17 batters in a 5-4 loss.
“I think what I’m looking for tonight is strike one,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “It’s no secret that when a pitcher gets ahead in the count, he has a lot more success. If he can get [his first-strike rate] somewhere around 60%, it’s going to be an easier path for him.”
Buehler actually did a better job of getting ahead in counts, throwing first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 21 batters he faced, but six of those at-bats in which he threw first-pitch strikes ended with hits or walks.
After giving up a two-out double to Raleigh and walking Luke Raley and Randy Arozarena to load the bases, he jumped ahead of Jorge Polanco with an 0-and-2 count. Polanco then lined a 1-2 sinker into right field for a two-run single and a 2-0 lead.
With two on and one out in the third, Buehler got ahead of Polanco again with an 0-2 count. Polanco drove a 1-2 changeup to left-center field for an RBI double and a 3-0 lead.
Buehler did well to limit damage in the third, getting Haniger on a tapper in front of the plate and Josh Rojas to ground out to first with runners on second and third to end the inning.
Buehler gave up one hit in a scoreless fourth, an inning in which he barked at plate umpire CB Bucknor about a borderline pitch to Julio Rodriguez that was called a ball, but his pitch count was too high to start the fifth.
Short hops
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, out since June 16 because of a rotator cuff strain, is scheduled to throw to hitters in a two-inning simulated game on Wednesday. Roberts said the right-hander will need one more simulated game session of three innings before going on a minor league rehabilitation assignment. … The Dodgers pushed reliever Blake Treinen’s return from the injured list from Tuesday night to Wednesday night in order to retain long-reliever Ben Casparius for one more game.
