Freeman's Eighth-Inning Single Sinks Detroit, LAD Wins 2-1
Freddie Freeman singled to center in the eighth inning to score Teoscar Hernandez, swinging Detroit's win probability from 51% to 28% in a single at-bat. Los Angeles took a low-scoring, tightly contested game 2-1 on the road.
Detroit drew first blood in the fifth when Max Clark tripled to left to score Valencia, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Clark went 1-2 with that RBI — and for a stretch, it looked like it might be enough. Los Angeles answered immediately in the sixth: Miguel Rojas singled to center, scoring Enrique Hernandez and moving Teoscar Hernandez to second to knot the game at one. Rojas finished 1-1 with the RBI, and that quiet, efficient at-bat kept the Dodgers alive.
The story of the night, though, was pitching — and specifically what Tarik Skubal did on the wrong side of the ledger. Pitching for Los Angeles, Skubal went 6.0 innings, allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run while walking nobody and striking out 7. That's a performance that looks dominant regardless of which uniform he's wearing. Drew Anderson started for Detroit and was sharp in his own right — 0 earned runs across 4.2 innings — but 5 walks kept him on a short leash. The Dodgers' bullpen then took over and was immaculate: Evan Phillips threw a perfect inning with 3 strikeouts, and Tanner Scott closed it out with another hitless frame and 2 more punchouts. Los Angeles combined for 12 strikeouts and zero walks out of the bullpen.
The decisive moment came in the eighth. With Detroit holding a 51% win probability at home, Freeman stepped up and singled to center, scoring Teoscar Hernandez — who had reached and moved into scoring position — to make it 2-1 Dodgers. That single swung Detroit's win probability to 28%, a 23-point collapse on one pitch. Freeman finished 2-4 with the game-winning RBI, and Teoscar Hernandez went 2-4 with a run scored. Gleyber Torres was Detroit's most consistent bat at 2-4, but the Tigers couldn't convert when it mattered. This appears to be exactly the kind of game Los Angeles is built to win — grind it out, get a quality start, and let a proven hitter deliver when the margin is razor-thin.