Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis is a slow runner – perhaps the slowest runner on the team (although a race between he and Adrian Gonzalez might be too close to call). But Ellis ran slower than he normally does on Friday night against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park and it actually won the game for the Dodgers.

How is this possible, you ask? Allow me to set the stage for you because is was as crazy of a game as you will ever see.

Dodgers ace and defending NL MVP and Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw brought his A-game. He took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning and after striking out Padres center fielder Melvin Upton – his 11th strikeout victim of the night – Kershaw gave up a monster solo home run to shortstop Clint Barmes that landed in the second deck in left field to make it a 2-1 game. Kershaw then got Corey Spangenberg to ground out to substitute first baseman Justin Turner, who had replaced Adrian Gonzalez, who had been ejected for arguing a seriously blown strike call by home plate umpire Doug Eddings – and not his first of the night. (Did I mention that this was a crazy game?).

At that point, Kershaw had made a total of 117 pitches – his season high – and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly decided to remove his ace and replace him with fireballer Yimi Garcia. With two outs and on Garcia’s very first pitch, Padres first baseman Wil Myers hit a high pop-up in front of the mound. But rather than getting completely out of the way and for reasons that only he knows, Garcia started towards the play, as did Dodgers third baseman Alberto Callaspo and first baseman Justin Turner and just as you would expect with this complete cluster… mess, the ball dropped after hitting Turner’s glove and Myers was standing on second base representing the tying run instead of being the easy third out.

This brought the ever-dangerous Padres catcher Derek Norris to the plate and on Garcia’s very first pitch, Norris hit a laser-shot home run down the left field line. In exactly two pitches, Garcia blew the save, cost Kershaw a win and put the Dodgers in a 3-2 deficit. It was the fastest implosion I have ever seen in my 61+ years as a Dodger fan. Even though Garcia managed to strike out left fielder Justin Upton to end the inning, the damage was done.

Kershaw allowed one run on four hits while walking three and striking out 11 in his 6.2 innings of work. But in two pitches, reliever Yimi Garcia wiped it all out. (Photo credit – Lenny Ignelzi)

If these were the 2014 Dodgers, they would have quit and walked away losers. But these are the 2015 Dodgers who have made a habit of coming back… and come back they did.

As he seems to do practically every night, Dodgers second baseman Howie Kendrick led off the top of the eighth with a leg double down the right field line. Former Dodger Matt Kemp fielded the ball and fired to second base to try to nail Kendrick – and he would have (by a good three feet) had he made a good throw. But Kemp’s throw was off line and Kendrick was safe at second base representing the tying run with Justin Turner coming up. Turner promptly lined a single to center scoring Kendrick to make it a 3-3 game. This was followed by an Andre Ethier single to right, which put the go ahead run at second base and no outs – or so you would think.

With Jimmy Rollins at the plate, Turner was picked off second base by Norris after Rollins pulled his bat back after showing bunt. Rollins then flied out to right for the second out of the inning with Ethier still standing at first base and the .164-hitting A.J. Ellis at the plate. In what would prove to be one of his best at-bats of the season, Ellis worked out a six-pitch walk off of Padres reliever Dale Thayer to once again move the go ahead run into scoring position.

With two outs, runners and first and second and the pitcher’s spot due up, there wasn’t a Dodger fan in the world who didn’t know what was coming – Alex Guerrero was brought in to pinch-hit for Yimi Garcia. Guerrero, who seems to live for these moments, didn’t disappoint as he hit a bloop single to center field. Because there were two outs, Ethier was running on contact and was running full speed when he rounded third and headed for home. Now whether it was by design or just a little divine intervention (these are the Padres, after all), Melvin Upton didn’t even attempt to throw home to try to nail Ethier at the plate (which he would not have) and fired to third base instead to try to nail A.J. Ellis, who was going from first to third on Guerrero’s blooper.

It wasn’t a pretty hit but it was a huge hit. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

This is where Ellis’s lack of speed comes into play.

There was zero doubt that Ellis was going to be thrown out at third base. The question was, would he be tagged out before Andre Ethier touched home plate? And although there are some who say that Ellis was  thrown out because he is just plain slow, a close look at the replay shows that A.J. appeared to pull up – albeit only slightly – just before he went into his slide, and in doing so, bought Ethier a fraction of a second longer to touch home plate – and it worked.

In this video capture (courtesy of SportsNet LA), you can clearly see Andre Ethier touching home plate before A.J. Ellis is tagged out at third base. (Click on image to view video)

Whether planned or not, Ellis proved that Slow Kills.