When Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux booted a routine ground ball on what should have easily been the third out of the top of the second inning in the series finale with the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon but instead led to four unearned Phillies runs, there wasn’t a Dodgers fan on the planet who ever wanted to see the 24-year-old Kenosha, WI native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2016 out of Indian Trail High School play another game in a Dodgers uniform … not ever.

In addition to allowing those four unearned runs to score, the only runs that the NL East second-place Phillies would score on the day, it prevented 25-year-old Michael Grove, making his Major League debut, from pitching what should have been 3.2 shutout innings – or more. Instead, the Phillies took those four unearned runs into the bottom of the ninth inning, clinging to a 4-3 lead over the Dodgers and three outs away from completing a four-game series sweep.

It also set up one of the greatest storybook endings in recent Dodgers memory.

Down to their final out and down to his final strike, Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger roped a triple into the right field corner off of former Dodgers right-hander Corey Knebel to become the tying run 90 feet away. This was followed by a crucial six-pitch walk by popular Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor, bringing (wait for it…) Gavin Lux to the plate with the tying and winning runs on base. In his previous three plate appearances, Lux had struck out twice and walked once.

On a 2-1 count and as if by divine intervention, the heretofore Goat Gavin Lux became the Hero Gavin Lux when he lined a double into the right field corner, scoring Bellinger and Taylor for the Dodgers first walk-off win of the season and first since Chris Taylor’s dramatic walk-off home run in the 2021 NL Wild Card game to send the Dodgers into the 2021 NLDS.

“I probably shouldn’t have been in that situation anyway, so I kind of had to make up for earlier,” a celebratory water-soaked Lux told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson immediately after the game. “Yeah, just trying to get something up in the zone. Corey’s got a really good curveball and those heaters up, so just looking for something up.

“Obviously, Belli having a great at-bat getting the [triple], CT taking a walk, and just kind of passing on the baton. So, yeah, it was fun.”

“It was big,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters postgame. “You know, obviously, he wants to make that play for Michael, and it sort of snowballed. But good to see Michael recover after that play and I’m sure that was on Gavin’s mind all day long. So for him to be able to atone for that, I know that he feels pretty good about it.”

As for Grove, he had officially been called up earlier in the day from Double-A Tulsa to make his MLB debut – as the Dodgers’ starter, no less.

“Grover threw great, I mean, I felt terrible after that,” Lux said his costly error in Grove’s MLB debut in which he allowed no earned runs on four hits, with three strikeouts and three walks. “And then he kept trucking along and he looked great. So, yeah, just trying to make up for that and trying to pick everybody up.”

“It was crazy. I was kind of floating in the first inning or so,” Grove said of his MLB debut. “They asked me afterwards like ‘Do you even remember the first batter?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, bits and pieces,’ but just really excited for it. It was awesome having my family, a couple friends out here, too. So, it was awesome.”

A storybook ending indeed.

Play Ball!

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