It may be redundant but it definitely never gets old – at least not for the Dodgers and their fans.

For the second time in four days and the 10th time this season, the National League West first-place Dodgers pulled off yet another come-from-behind walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth inning in a rare midweek day game at Dodger Stadium. This time, however, it wasn’t by one of their young bucks, but rather by their senior statesmen, 36-year-old catcher Russell Martin.

Trailing 1-0 and literally down to their last strike, and with runners on second and third, the Canadian-born 14-year MLB veteran lined a base hit into center field, allowing Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager (who had been hit in the back by a pitch from St. Louis Cardinals left-hander Andrew Miller to score the tying run) and pinch-hitter Will Smith (who had reached on a single off of Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez) to score the winning run, sending the Dodger Stadium crowd of 48,994 (or what was left of it) into an absolute frenzy.

“Got a pitch that I could put in play, and really just put it in a good spot,” Martin said. “It’s not like it was hit that hard or anything. Sometimes placement is what you need. It was one of those cases.

“A lot of walk-offs come from young guys. The old guys need to kind of sharpen it up. Let the old guys get hot too, you know,” he added kiddingly.

“It just seems like every day, there’s somebody different that you’re pouring Gatorade on,” Dodgers manager Dave Robert told reporters this after the game. “It’s really good to see. It’s great for our ballclub, a testament to their desire, their will to play 27 outs.”

Once again, and for the 10th time this season, that 27th out was not recorded.

“It’s something that I think the other dugout feels it as well,” said Roberts. “The crowd gets into it. We start feeling it. It seems like everyone in our lineup has been in that spot and has come through. Once you have that history and that feeling, that’s tangible and we keep showing it’s real.

Although overshadowed by Martin’s late-innings heroics, it would be negligent not to mention the outstanding pitching performance by Dodgers 21-year-old rookie right-hander Dustin May, who made only the second start of his young MLB career. The Justin, TX native and Dodgers third-round draft pick in 2016 out of Northwest High School was, in a word, sensational.

The 6′-6″ / 180-pound hard-throwing right-hander allowed only one run (a sixth-inning solo home run by Cardinals left-fielder Marcell Ozuna) and only five hits, he struck out seven while walking only one in his 5.2 innings pitched. And even though he did not factor into the decision, May lowered his ERA to an impressive 3.18 in his combined 11.1 innings pitched, while walking one and striking out 10.

“Just locating everything better. I settled down a little more today and found the zone,” May said. “I definitely felt a little more comfortable. It was definitely more in my hand, I felt today. I was controlling the zone, controlling my pitches.”

Also worth noting is that previously beleaguered Dodgers right-hander Joe Kelly appears to have turned things around and is now pitching the way that he did in the 2018 World Series against the Dodgers. In his one inning of work on Wednesday, the 31-year-old Anaheim, CA native struck out the side on 12 pitches.

Play Ball!

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