Muncy Walks It Off in Ten as LAD Survives KC's Eighth-Inning Surge

Los Angeles needed extra innings and a Royals error to survive Wednesday night, but Max Muncy's walk-off single in the tenth — scoring Ohtani to make it 5-4 — sealed the deal. The real story of the night was an eighth inning that swung wildly in both directions before Mookie Betts steadied the ship.

Blake Snell was dominant early, going 6.0 innings and striking out 10 on just 3 hits and 1 earned run — the kind of outing that should have made this a comfortable night for Los Angeles. Betts gave him the lead in the second with a 378-foot homer to left, and the Dodgers extended it to 3-1 in the seventh on an Alex Call RBI double and a T. Hernández double that plated Call. Michael Wacha kept Kansas City in it, allowing 3 earned runs over 6.2 innings with 5 strikeouts and zero walks, but the Dodgers looked to be pulling away.

Then the eighth inning happened. Kansas City strung together a three-run rally that looked like it might define the game: Caglianone singled to left to score Loftin, Perez singled to score Witt Jr., and then — the gut punch — Jensen lined out to center, but a fielding error by the center fielder Pages allowed Caglianone to score, putting the Royals ahead 4-3. The Dodgers had handed Kansas City the lead, and the momentum, at least on paper, had completely flipped. That's when Betts did what Betts does. His single to right scored Tucker and tied it at 4, and that one swing moved LAD's win probability from 36% to 67% — a 31-point shift that effectively turned the game back around in a single at-bat.

Neither team scored in the ninth, setting up the tenth, where Muncy's single to center off a Kansas City bullpen that had been sharp — Nate Pearson threw a clean 1.0 inning with 2 strikeouts and no hits — finally ended it. Witt Jr. went 2-for-5 with 2 runs scored for Kansas City and looks like the one Royal who refused to let his team fade quietly; Caglianone added 2 hits and an RBI in a strong showing. But the night belonged to Betts, who finished 3-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, and to Muncy, whose 2-for-4 line included the hit that sent everyone home. The Dodgers win 5-4.