Ohtani's late-game heroics in Detroit halt Dodgers' skid

DETROIT -- The Dodgers appeared to be squarely behind the eight-ball, with Tigers ace Tarik Skubal mowing them down early on Friday night at Comerica Park. But they got back in the game with a Freddie Freeman homer and eventually erased a three-run deficit on their way to a 4-3 win.

Shohei Ohtani drove in the winning run in the ninth inning with a ground-rule double that scored second baseman Chris Taylor, who started the rally with an opposite-field single. Teoscar Hernández had tied the score with an opposite-field RBI single in the eighth.

Five relievers combined to pitch 5 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing for the hitting heroics.

“They performed incredibly well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You saw the fight we were talking about. You’re going against a really good pitcher in Skubal, and for us to hang in there -- and I give the bullpen a ton of credit -- just hanging in there and taking good at-bats when we needed to, whether it’s Teo or CT or Austin [Barnes] coming off the bench and getting a hit for us. Shohei coming up big when we needed it most, and Freddie taking a really good at-bat against a lefty.

“So, across the board, we got the hits that we were hoping for. And it just comes with the fight I know we have.”

Daniel Hudson had walked only five all season but issued two free passes in the bottom of the ninth, but he then struck out Matt Vierling and got All-Star Riley Greene to fly out to center for his fourth save.

It wasn’t easy, but the final outcome ended a four-game losing streak with Los Angeles one away from matching its longest such stretch this season.

Freeman started the turnaround by becoming the first left-handed hitter to connect for a home run off Skubal this season, with his 405-foot shot to right-center launched off a changeup on a 1-2 pitch for his 14th round-tripper of the season.

Freeman's homer came with one out in the fourth and was the Dodgers’ first hit off Skubal, who had allowed only two extra-base hits against left-handed batters in 69 previous at-bats in 2024.

Skubal had thrown the changeup for a called strike on the first pitch of the at-bat. Freeman fouled away a sinker and took a slider for a ball, then he jumped on the changeup to break an 0-for-12 streak with a drive traveling 100.9 mph.

Andy Pages singled in another run in the fourth as the Dodgers rallied against Skubal, who lasted six innings.

Both Hernández, who tied the score, and Taylor, who started the winning rally, found themselves down, 0-2, in the count.

“I think it’s toughness,” said Roberts. “And I think it’s competing and just fighting -- trying to move the ball forward. And each of those guys -- Teo’s hit a lot of homers for us -- to be able to shorten up to get a base hit and understand the value of that. CT -- there’s a lot of swing-and-miss to his game, but he’s really worked on that the last month. So, for him to move a ball forward there and shorten his swing was huge.

“For those guys to have that club in their bag is huge -- which will then build confidence.”

Added Hernández: “The second-base hole was open, and I wasn’t trying to do too much to get an extra-base hit because I know with a base hit I can tie the ball game. ... So I wanted something up in the strike zone to shoot the other way.”

Their grind-it-out at-bats took starter James Paxton off the hook for the loss after he'd allowed three runs on five hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked four batters, and two of them ended up scoring.

Paxton is third on the team in wins, but he hasn’t recorded a victory since June 17. He pitched well in two of the three starts since then but was rocked for nine runs on 12 hits in four innings at San Francisco in between.

“I wasn’t executing well,” said Paxton of Friday’s start, “and leaving balls in the middle of the plate. In bad counts, they do damage.”

Paxton, who was hit in the inner thigh by a comebacker, hastening his departure, is trying to adjust to losing the higher velocity he once had. He added that he “will be fine” for his next start after the All-Star break.

And the bullpen, while having to enter earlier than Roberts probably hoped, couldn’t have been more effective, with Yohan Ramírez, Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Michael Petersen and Hudson putting up nothing but zeros.

“They did a fantastic job,” said Paxton.

It was a true team win.

“Hats off to Skubal for pitching really great, really good today,” said Ohtani through interpreter Will Ireton. “But I think we really put up good at-bats and grinded out every single at-bat. So I think the pitch count went up [to 101] and, as a result, we were able to have a shot to win today.”