The Dodgers and Tigers battled through a tense and chaotic late-inning stretch that ended in walk-off fashion. Mookie Betts gave the Dodgers a one-run lead with a homer in the eighth, but the Tigers responded in the ninth. Manny Margot tied it with an RBI single, then sprinted home on a double that led to a wild play at the plate. Initially called safe, the run was wiped out after replay showed a subtle ripple in the runner’s pants as he was tagged just before touching the plate. A rare catch by replay officials.
In the tenth, Detroit struck again, this time for real. A soft liner dropped in, and two runs scored when the outfielder’s dive delayed the throw. The Tigers took a 5-3 lead and held it to the bottom of the tenth. But the Dodgers rallied. A series of hits and a costly pitch sequence led to the game tying at 5. With runners on, Mookie Betts came back up. After a long battle of fastballs and changeups, he crushed a walk-off three-run homer. Dodgers win 8-5.
Betts’ heroics bookended the chaos, and Tommy Edman was everywhere for L.A. defensively. That ninth-inning replay will be talked about for a while, but it didn’t change the final result. The Dodgers outlasted the Tigers in an early-season thriller.