Muncy's 10th-inning sac fly puts end to Dodgers' 4-game slide - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Max Muncy lifted a Shelby Miller fastball into the air, then raised his left hand and pointed upward. His 10th-inning sacrifice fly had capped a three-run frame that triggered the Los Angeles Dodgers' fourth walk-off win this season, a 4-3 thriller over the division rival Arizona Diamondbacks.

It felt slightly bigger than that.

«It was kind of a big game for us,» Muncy said. «We were definitely in a slide.»

The Dodgers were coming off four straight losses at home, their first such losing streak in seven years. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto had responded by delivering seven masterful innings, providing the type of start an injury-riddled pitching staff was clamoring for. As Tuesday's game played out, winning it became increasingly more crucial.

It took absorbing a game-tying homer from D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno in the ninth, then coming back from down two runs in the bottom of the 10th — by which point Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had exhausted almost all of his options out of the bullpen.

«We needed a win bad,» said Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott, who surrendered home runs in the ninth and 10th innings. «Luckily we have a pretty good lineup, so it saved us.»

What the Dodgers needed more than anything, though, was a good start.

Yamamoto took the mound after giving up eight runs in 11 innings over his previous two outings, putting a damper on his early-season dominance. Three members of the Dodgers' rotation — Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell — resided on the injured list with shoulder injuries. Over the previous four games, the starters who essentially replaced them had combined for a 9.60 ERA. A bullpen that has five high-leverage relievers hurt and leads the majors in innings was ill-equipped to