Freeman's walk-off 'a huge weight off our shoulders'

LOS ANGELES -- There is no such thing as a must-win game in June, especially not for a team that’s over .500. But if there was, this felt pretty close to it for the Dodgers.

After a 2-4 road trip, the Dodgers were staring at the prospect of dropping two of three to a White Sox team that hasn’t lived up to its own expectations. Before the game, Freddie Freeman said the team had “conversations” in which the players acknowledged that they needed to start playing better.

Through five innings on Thursday night, though, all the attention was on the Dodgers’ recent pitching woes. There also wasn’t much offense against talented right-hander Dylan Cease, the 2022 AL Cy Young Award runner-up.

But with one swing of the bat, the entire mood changed.

Chris Taylor jumped on a Reynaldo López fastball in the sixth, smacking it for a grand slam and sending the Dodger Stadium crowd into a frenzy. That swing later set the stage for Freeman's walk-off RBI single in the 11th inning to help the Dodgers win, 5-4, and take the series from the White Sox.

Taylor's clutch hit made him the first player in AL/NL history to hit a grand slam for both his first career homer and his 100th.

“Getting a series win for us was the biggest thing,” Taylor said. “We’ve kind of been in a slump here, so to speak, and tonight felt like a momentum changer. Hopefully we can kind of ride that and get on a roll here moving forward.”

While it remains to be seen if Taylor’s swing indeed ends up being the moment the Dodgers have been searching for, it certainly felt like a big point of the season so far.

“It gave us a pulse,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “CT is a guy that he prepares, he comes up with big hits, he has his entire tenure with us and this was another big one. [López] is tough on right-handers, he got into a count and put up a four spot. It was a big hit.”

The Dodgers (39-30) improved to nine games over .500 with Thursday’s win, but they haven’t been playing their best baseball as of late. They had lost three of their last seven games and hadn’t won a series in nearly two weeks. The frustration was summed up with Roberts delivering a strong message to the team’s bullpen following Wednesday’s loss to Chicago.

Los Angeles’ bullpen has been a big reason for the team’s recent mini-slump, coming into Thursday’s game with a 4.90 ERA, the worst in the National League. But on Thursday, the relief corps combined for six scoreless innings, turning back into the group that was among the league’s best a season ago.

“I think the difference tonight was the bullpen,” Roberts said. “When you look at those guys and how they covered six innings, to not give up a run was pretty remarkable. Every single one of those guys. We’re proud with how they responded."

After Michael Grove got through the fifth inning, the Dodgers were in a tough spot with the bullpen, still needing to cover at least four innings in a game they trailed 4-0 at the time.

Roberts turned to Shelby Miller, who tossed two scoreless frames. Miller then passed it on to Yency Almonte, who pitched a clean eighth inning.

Evan Phillips, easily the team’s best reliever this season, pitched two scoreless innings, including stranding the go-ahead run at third base in the 10th. Caleb Ferguson capped it off with a scoreless 11th, finally giving Freeman a chance to walk it off with the bases loaded.

“I think we saw it as an opportunity to get back on track,” Phillips said. “They [the offense] battled for us through our tough stretch, so it kind of felt like we returned the favor tonight. It really felt like a great team win, just a huge weight off our shoulders to win in that fashion. To kind of grind out a game as a group, it feels really good.”

Los Angeles will have to figure out its pitching plan for Friday’s series opener against its longtime rival Giants. But for a night in June, the Dodgers exhausted all their options to make sure they won on Thursday. It’s a win they knew they needed to get.

“A series win is huge,” Freeman said. “Good to play some good baseball the last couple days and got a series win, so we’ll carry that into the big weekend.”