Balk in wild eighth inning caps Dodgers’ inconceivable comeback

LOS ANGELES — Dodger Stadium was rocking. The packed house crowd went right into a frenzy when James Outman tied the sport with a ground-rule double off Bryan Abreu within the eighth inning.

A handful of pitches later, the noise solely intensified when second-base umpire Junior Valentine referred to as a balk on Astros right-hander Ryne Stanek, permitting Jonny Deluca to attain the go-ahead run for the Dodgers.

Stanek and supervisor Dusty Baker had been each ejected on the finish of the inning. But regardless of their arguments, in the long run that was the deciding play within the Dodgers’ 8-7 win over the Astros on Saturday.

“I don’t think I’ve been called for a balk maybe ever, like college, Minor Leagues, ever,” mentioned Stanek. “So yeah, I thought that was pretty wild to have that happen.”

Baker mentioned that he was pissed off by an absence of rationalization from Valentine, whereas Stanek insisted that, with the group noise too loud to listen to his PitchCom gadget and the pitch timer winding down, he was utilizing one in every of his two allotted disengagements to present himself a second to regroup. In his view, the balk name was incorrect.

“[Valentine] said I moved my knee, which, I mean, as you’re standing, you have to move your knee to step off the rubber,” mentioned Stanek. “So I thought that was an interesting reason to give, especially in a situation like that where the balk is intentionally trying to deceive a runner — which, at what point was I trying to deceive a runner? I hadn’t even come set yet. I was literally not even in that process of coming set. I literally was just stepping backwards. So yeah, I just don’t see how you can make that a call right there.”

The Dodgers, alternatively, felt like the proper name was made on the sphere. Miguel Rojas, who was within the batter’s field on the play, mentioned he initially heard the home-plate umpire, Manny Gonzalez, say a timeout was referred to as. But Rojas rapidly rotated and informed Gonzalez that it was a balk name and never a timeout. From Rojas’ vantage level, Stanek balked.

“From our side,” Rojas mentioned. “It’s a good break for us right there.”

Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts agreed with Rojas, saying postgame that he believes it’s a transparent balk on Stanek due to the movement along with his left knee. The Dodgers had an analogous play referred to as towards them earlier this season when Phil Bickford was referred to as for a balk after a slight twitch along with his knee.

“He got it right,” Roberts mentioned. “Obviously in a game like that, you don’t want it to be the deciding run in that situation. But they got the call right. And I think Stanek was looking at the pitch clock maybe, maybe trying to step off, call time out, and then his cleat got stuck. But it was a balk by the letter of the law. We’ll take it.”

Regardless of what both sides believes was the proper name, this was a tricky loss for the Astros after they out-hit the Dodgers, 13-5. After falling behind, 3-1, within the first inning when starter Ronel Blanco gave up house runs to Will Smith and Jason Heyward, the Astros bounced again with a five-run fifth inning, highlighted by Alex Bregman’s grand slam off Dodgers starter Bobby Miller.

On the opposite facet of the ledger, it was one of many Dodgers’ finest wins of the season, persevering with this week’s resurgence with their fourth consecutive victory. 

Though the balk name was essentially the most controversial play of the inning, Los Angeles put collectively fairly the eighth-inning rally towards Abreu, the Astros’ high reliever. 

He walked Freddie Freeman, Smith and J.D. Martinez to start out the inning. Heyward minimize the deficit to 1 run with a sacrifice fly. Outman, who was within the midst of his longest hunch as an enormous leaguer till Friday’s 3-for-4 sport, adopted with a clutch RBI double to tie the sport. Adding to the bizarre goings-on within the inning, Outman’s double initially regarded like a three-run homer, however the ball bought caught on the right-field fence and it was decided to be a ground-rule double.

“This tells you guys what kind of team we are,” mentioned Dodgers outfielder David Peralta, who began the comeback with a two-run homer within the seventh. “We’re fighting all the way to the end. We never give up.”

For the Astros, their massive 10-game highway journey has gotten off to a disappointing begin. They’ve now dropped seven of their final 9 video games. At 41-36, they’re in third place within the American League West, a half-game behind the second-place Angels and 6 1/2 video games behind the first-place Rangers. For a membership that’s spent the higher a part of the previous seven years dominating its division, it’s an uncommon spot to be in practically midway by means of the season. And losses like Saturday’s solely make the state of affairs extra irritating.

“This was real tough,” mentioned Baker. “I mean, we’ve had some tough losses this year. Hopefully, this is the last of it, and it’s probably not, but we don’t need another tough loss for a long time.”