There is no disputing that Matt Kemp‘s dramatic three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning on Saturday night in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,394 was the single biggest home run of the season for the Dodgers. Not only did it give the Dodgers the eventual 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, it also put them into a tie for first place in the National League West with those same Diamondbacks with only 26 games remaining in the 2018 regular season.

“Biggest win of the year so far,” said Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who pitched brilliantly in his 7.0 innings of work, but got zero run support from his teammates. “Big crowd tonight. I think they understood the magnitude of this game, and you felt it.”

Although Kemp’s three-run blast in the eighth inning on Saturday night was the eventual game winner, it was what the two guys batting in front of him that made it such.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

But for as big as Kemp’s blast was, and in no way am I minimizing its importance, the two guys who came to the plate ahead of the 33-year-old Midwest City, Oklahoma native and Dodgers sixth-round draft pick in 2003 turned what might have been only a one or two run home run into the game-winning three run 427-foot blast.

After Dodgers pinch-hitter Max Muncy led off the inning with a strikeout, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, the team’s hottest hitter, lined a 1-2 slider off of Dbacks right-hander Archie Bradley the opposite way right between second baseman Ketel Marte and shortstop Nick Ahmed for a single. It was an excellent piece of hitting by Turner to go with the pitch to right field instead of trying to pull it. It also brought equally hot-hitting Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado to the plate representing the tying run in the then 2-0 ballgame.

It was also the turning point of the game.

All the recently acquired 26-year-old Hialeah, Florida native, four-time All-Star, and two-time Gold Glove shortstop did was force Bradley to make nine pitches (that included four foul balls) before he laid off an 83.1-mph curveball in the dirt on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to draw a huge walk.

Machado’s 10-pitch walk with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning with Justin Turner on first base was arguably the single greatest at-bat of the season for the Dodgers.

In addition to putting the tying runs on base. Machado’s epic base on balls allowed Dodgers on-deck hitter Matt Kemp who, to that point, was 0-for-3 on the night with two strikeouts, to get a very good look at Bradley.

Machado’s outstanding 10-pitch at-bat which resulted in a walk gave on-deck batter Matt Kemp a very good look at Dbacks right-hander Archie Bradley, which ended up paying huge dividends.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

After falling behind 0-2 on two consecutive 94-mph four-seam fastballs, Bradley and Dbacks catcher Jeff Mathis decided to fix what wasn’t broken and came back with two consecutive curveballs, the first in the dirt for ball one and the second that Kemp launched 427 feet over the wall in left center field for a three-run home run, the 19th of the season for the popular Dodger outfielder, to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead and eventual final score.

How important was Machado’s 10-pitch at-bat for Kemp before his heroic blast?”

“That was definitely key, you know,” Kemp told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo immediately after the game. “Take as many pitches as you can, you know, wear him down and try to get me something good to hit, just feed off that at-bat and we took it from there.”

Although Dodger fans will long remember Kemp’s epic three-run game-winning home run that put the Dodgers into a tie for first place with the Dbacks, they should also remember the clutch one out single by Justin Turner and the huge 10-pitch at-bat by Manny Machado that resulted in a walk to set the table for Kemp.

You know … the other two guys