LOS ANGELES – Shohei Ohtani began his 50-50 chase in earnest Saturday although it came with far less heroics.
Ohtani hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the fifth inning, one night after joining the 40-40 club, but the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 9-8 victory in 10 innings behind a pair of home runs in the late innings.
Ohtani did lift a towering fly ball to right field in the bottom of the 10th, down two runs and with the automatic runner aboard, in a blast that appeared to be on the same arc as his game-winning grand slam Friday. But there was far less distance this time as his out merely moved Miguel Rojas up a base.
“I was hoping he got enough of it, but he still took a good swing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Instead, it was the Rays’ turn to deliver some clutch home runs.
Tampa Bays’ Jose Caballero hit a go-ahead home run in the 10th inning off Joe Kelly (1-1) to follow Junior Caminero’s game-tying solo shot in the ninth against Evan Phillips, who was unable to protect a one-run lead.
The Rays even scored a run against right-hander Michael Kopech, who allowed a run for the first time in 11 outings with the Dodgers. A sacrifice fly from Yandy Diaz in the eighth against Kopech pulled the Rays within a run at 8-7.
Kelly remains a fan favorite, with his flashy entrances into games, but Roberts is growing concerned over a lack of consistency. Kelly has given up runs in four of his nine games this month as his ERA has risen from 3.93 to its current 4.85 mark.
“He left a slider (up), good pitch to hit,” Roberts said of Caballero’s home run in the eighth. “As far as inconsistencies, I just don’t know the answer. Sometimes he comes in and he’s lights out and other times he labors. I don’t know if it’s something we have to dig into but it’s certainly been inconsistent.”
The loss meant the Arizona Diamondbacks moved to within three games in the National League West chase, while the San Diego Padres remained 4 1/2 games back after pulling to within two games last weekend.
Teoscar Hernandez and Miguel Rojas also hit home runs as the Dodgers’ offense came to the rescue of Clayton Kershaw in the middle innings. Kershaw was not sharp early in his sixth start of the season following offseason shoulder surgery.
The left-hander gave up four runs in the first inning of an outing that looked more like last season’s playoff disappointment when he was hit hard in the first inning by the Diamondbacks. But Kershaw rallied back to give up just one more run over his final four innings of work.
“That first inning I came right at them and to get our team behind that much that early is tough to come back from,” Kershaw said. “But when you’re on a great team like we are, you try to make it as best as you can and our team showed what they can do. They came back and battled. I can’t say enough offensively what these guys did.
The veteran left-hander gave up five runs on nine hits over five innings with two walks and five strikeouts.
The 4-0 first-inning deficit was whittled to a run in the fourth inning when Mookie Betts had an RBI double to score Ohtani from first base following a catcher’s interference call. Freddie Freeman flew out and Betts appeared to get thrown out at third base while trying to tag up.
On replay, Betts was ruled safe at third and on the next pitch, Hernandez hit a two-run home run to left-center that brought the Dodgers to within 4-3. It was Hernandez’s 27th of the season.
The Rays moved in front 5-3 in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly from Josh Lowe before the Dodgers went back to work.
“I kind of settled in there a little bit and that fifth-inning run really bothered me,” Kershaw said. “Just a lot of things I need to execute better on for sure.”
Max Muncy, back in the lineup after getting a rest Friday, doubled to lead off the fifth inning and moved to third on a Tommy Edman ground out. Rojas had an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-4 and Ohtani followed with a home run into the right-field corner.
Ohtani’s 41st home run leaves him 32 games to reach his first career 50-homer season.
“It was good hitting in the sense that it wasn’t a fastball, it was down below the zone and he didn’t come out of his swing,” Roberts said. “He stayed square and he was able to have enough behind it and keep it fair and hit it out of the ballpark.
“That’s just something that your body kind of reacts, and for him to stay through the baseball speaks to where he’s at. It’s really hard to do and it was a really good swing.”
