Ohtani's late homer doesn't hold up as LA falls into NL West tie

ANAHEIM -- One big swing from Shohei Ohtani, and there was a brief sense of relief in the visitors' dugout at Angel Stadium.

But then things swung back in the opposite direction just as quickly.

Ohtani took Angels closer Kenley Jansen deep for a tiebreaking shot in the top of the ninth inning, only for the Halos to tie the game right back up against Alex Vesia in the bottom half of the frame. Ben Casparius was able to strand the bases loaded to send the game to extras, but the Dodgers were ultimately walked off, 7-6, on Tuesday night.

The Angels have taken the first five games of this season's Freeway Series. The Dodgers will send Ohtani to the mound -- where he'll pitch against his former team for the first time -- as they try to avoid a sweep in the season series on Wednesday.

Up north, the Padres beat the Giants and moved into a tie for first place in the National League West.

"Now it's a new season," manager Dave Roberts said. "You look at the standings, and we just got to play better baseball and find ways to win games."

While the Dodgers created plenty of opportunities and were able to cash in on some, they also left runs on the table. They got on the board first on a Teoscar Hernández RBI single, but Max Muncy lined into a double play with the chance to add on in the first inning. Michael Conforto erased a leadoff baserunner by grounding into a double play in the fourth and struck out with the bases loaded one inning later, after his team had knotted the game at 5.

And then there was the triple play.

Pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas and Dalton Rushing opened the sixth with back-to-back singles, bringing Ohtani to the plate. But he lined a ball right at Angels shortstop Zach Neto, who snagged it, stepped on second to double off Rojas and threw to first where Rushing was tagged out to complete the play.

The next time Ohtani came up to bat to lead off the ninth, he hit a ball out of reach of any player on the field, crushing his NL-leading 43rd homer of the season to right field to put the Dodgers in front. It snapped Jansen's streak of 21 straight appearances without allowing an earned run.

Ohtani became the third player in the expansion era (since 1961) to hit into a triple play and hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning or later of the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, joining Henry Rodriguez (May 14, 2000) and Willie Davis (May 30, 1962).

Of the trio, only Davis' home run stood as the winning run.

"Big hit right there," Roberts said. "Obviously, you felt it in the dugout. And then the next inning, they get a leadoff runner on base, and then the inning builds."

Vesia has been the Dodgers' steadiest reliever, but he was charged with the loss in each of his past two outings. He had another rough go of it in the ninth, allowing a leadoff single, issuing three walks (one intentional) and giving up the tying run on a sacrifice fly.

"The home run was great. I felt really good going into it," Vesia said. "It just spiraled. It was the walks. Walks will kill you."

After Casparius entered and struck out Taylor Ward with the bases loaded to send the game to extras, the Dodgers went down in order in the top of the 10th. It didn't take long for the Angels to put the game to bed.

First Christian Moore laid down a sac bunt that stayed fair along the first-base line, allowing the automatic runner to advance to third. Then Adell followed with a chopper over the left side of a drawn-in Dodgers infield, and it was over.

Over the past month and change, the Dodgers' NL West lead dissipated from a season-high nine games on July 3 to their current tie with the Padres. Throughout this stretch, they've repeatedly expressed the need to play cleaner games and find ways to win, which they have not been able to do with consistency for some time.

The way the Dodgers see it, Wednesday is another chance to begin getting back on track.

"It’s just how you weather it," Freddie Freeman said. "How you respond and come back the next day. … See how we respond tomorrow. Shohei on the mound -- so see if he can throw nine innings and hit seven home runs.”