On Saturday night, Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler pitched a remarkable complete-game / 4-1 win over the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium. The game took only two hours and 18 minutes to complete.

Such was not the case in the series finale on Sunday afternoon (i.e., a day game after a night game), when it took a combined 12 pitchers and (ugh) three hours and 54 minutes to complete the game.

…and it was worth every minute of it.

For the ninth time this season, the Dodgers pulled yet another rabbit out of their collective hats with an incredible come-from-behind 11-10 walk-off win over the (now) NL West last-place Padres in front of what was left of the initial sunbaked Dodger Stadium crowd of 44,110.

In a seesaw battle that saw Dodgers right-handed starter (and probably soon-to-be reliever) Kenta Maeda give up five earned runs on five hits (including a grand slam home run by Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer in the top of the third inning), while walking one and striking out four, Dodgers second baseman Max Muncy roped a bottom-of-the-ninth-inning double into the right-field corner that allowed Dodgers left fielder Alex Verdugo (who had reached base on a fielders choice) and shortstop Corey Seager (who had also reached on a fielders choice that moved Verdugo to second base) to score the game-tying and game-winning runs in the 11-20 marathon game.

Down 10-9 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, Muncy put together an outstanding eight-pitch at-bat. It was during this at-bat that Padres All-Star right-handed closer Kirby Yates (and his MLB-best 32 saves) was clearly having difficulty getting on the same page with catcher Francisco Mejía. Yates shook Mejía off several times and called for two mound visits. Did this apparent confusion play into Muncy’s hand?

“It didn’t seem like they had the same set of signs or couldn’t get on the same page,” said Muncy. “Maybe kind of froze him. Seemed to be taking a lot of time.”

Was Verdugo surprised that his team was able to pull off yet another walk-off win?

“For everybody watching, don’t leave early, we can do something special at any given moment,” Verdugo told reporters after the game. “If we’re down by three, four, as long as there’s a ninth-inning, our guys can put up a crooked number real quick. Doesn’t matter what the score is after eight innings, we’ve proved the ninth can be a challenge.”

Ironically (but not surprisingly), Muncy also homered earlier in the game – a solo shot to right-center field to lead off the bottom of the second inning to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead – doubled in the fourth and ninth innings, and singled in the eighth to finish the game but a triple shy of the cycle.

“We’ve seen Max do it many times,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “He has a great way of staying in the strike zone. We showed a lot of resilience there.”

Although the Dodgers skipper was clearly disappointed with Maeda’s (once again) brief outing, he had high praise for his bullpen, especially for right-hander Pedro Baez, who retired the Friars in order in the top of the ninth, two via strikeout.

“Pedro was good,” Roberts said. “Fastball had some life in the top of the zone, slider was really good today.”

For his efforts, the 31-year-old Bani, Dominican Republic native earned the win to improve his record to 6-2 on the season while lowering his ERA to an impressive 3.22.

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