Dodgers: All Ten 2017 Walk-off Wins In Living Color

In honor of Dodgers FanFest, let’s take another loving look back at the Dodgers’ magical season of 2017.

At FanFest, Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw talked about the variety of hitters that contributed to an unbelievable walk-off win total of ten last season. Steve Yeager compared last year’s team to his own 1977 club. While gushing over the team’s recent run, Yeager said that the 2017 Dodgers benefited from a “different hero every night”. It’s true. The Dodgers had an incredible season filled with exciting to-the-wire finishes by an assortment of contributors. In fact, the whopping ten walk-offs were won by nine different Dodgers.

“Different hero every night”
-Steve Yeager, from Dodgers FanFest

Let’s relive all ten moments through brilliant color photography. Note that a certain epic blast that ended Game 2 of the NLCS is purposefully left off this list. Don’t fret, Justin Turner fans. JT was actually the hero of one of the regular season walk-off wins, too, but perhaps we had better start at the beginning.

Adrian Gonzalez

The Dodgers were down 2-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Phillies closer Hector Neris was called upon to shut the back door on the game and give his young ballclub a rare road victory. It was not happening on this night. With the count full on him, Yasiel Puig led off with a line drive home run to deep left-center field.  On the very next pitch, Cody Bellinger also went yard on a deep blast to right. With Turner up next, Neris continued to serve sloppy meatballs, gifting JT with a third straight Dodger homer to start the ninth.

Philadelphia was eventually able to get two out, although they had allowed Dodgers hitters to reach first and second base. Old friend Adrian Gonzalez came to the plate next. El Titan did his thing and battled to a one-ball and two-strike count. He waited for the pitch he wanted and, snake-like, uncoiled a single through the shortstop/third base gap to score Austin Barnes from second. Gonzalez’s RBI won the game for the Dodgers with walk-off victory number one of ten on Saturday, April 29th.

Austin Barnes

Los Angeles held a two run lead against Pittsburgh for most of the game Tuesday, May 9. After six impressive innings, though, the wheels fell off young Dodgers phenomenon Julio Urias.  In the top of the seventh, the Pirates were able to tie the game at two apiece. Pittsburgh gained a brief lead for the first time in the eighth inning before seeing it vanish again in the ninth as Bellinger singled home Corey Seager. Kenley Jansen then efficiently retired the side with two strikeouts in the top half of the ninth inning on 11 pitches. With the game now tied in extra frames, Austin Barnes got the call to pinch hit for Kenley. Barnes came to bat with two out and, yes, Ross Stripling on first base pinch running for Yasmani Grandal.

Pittsburgh’s Daniel Hudson had allowed a line drive to Grandal to start the inning, but looked sharp striking out Chris Taylor and Puig. Then Austin Barnes stepped into the batter’s box and the rest is Dodgers history. Barnes blasted the first pitch offered by Hudson to the right field wall for an RBI double, the second walk-off of 2017 for LA.

Logan Forsythe I

In another extended affair to remember, this time versus St. Louis, Los Angeles again needed extra innings to clinch their victory at home. Manager Dave Roberts opted to stick with his Ace with the game on the line and a one run lead in the ninth. Unfortunately for Roberts, Kershaw showed fatigue by letting a Cardinals runner score on a wild pitch. He had not allowed an earned run through his nine glorious innings on this night, but came out with no chance to win.

Four frames later, in the bottom of the thirteenth, former Dodger closer Jonathan Broxton came out of the visitor’s bullpen to try to be the stopper against his old team. It did not go that great for him. After walking Enrique Hernandez with two outs, Broxton threw Logan Forsythe the pitch he was waiting for. Forsythe gave it a ride to deep right field. His double allowing Hernandez to score from first. Their walk-off win on Tuesday, May 23 was the Dodgers’ third of 2017, but not nearly their last.

Corey Seager

The game on Saturday, June 10 against Cincinnati was tied at four in the bottom of the ninth. Two back-to-back singles by Puig and Justin Turner had put men on first and second base for the Dodgers. None other than Tony Cingrani was on the mound to try and get the Reds out of a jam. Against Dodgers right handed pinch hitter Franklin Gutierrez, Cingrani got him to strike out on four pitches. With Corey Seager on deck, though, you just knew things were about to get interesting.

Evidently seeing the ball well, on the very first pitch out of Cingrani’s left hand, Seager hit a fly ball deep down the left field line. Unbelievably, in his entire lifetime playing baseball, this was Corey’s first walk-off hit ever. His double scored Puig and provided ecstatic Dodger fans with their fourth walk-off win to celebrate that Summer.

Chris Taylor

The Dodgers had, uncharacteristically for them in 2017, gone almost a month without a walk-off win. That all changed on Thursday, July 6 when 40,000 or so frenzied fans witnessed a comeback at Dodger Stadium against their division rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the Dodgers already down 1-3 in the top of the ninth, Arizona got a gift when Chris Iannetta scored from third on a balk charged to Josh Fields. Now behind 1-4, the Dodgers needed a break. Enter Fernando Rodney.

Rodney gave up a single to Yasiel Puig on his second pitch. Then things got ugly. Rodney proceeded to walk three straight batters, ultimately scoring Puig and handing the Dodgers an unearned run. Seager, up next, singled to center field plating two runs to tie the game at four. With proven masher Justin Turner on deck and emerging contributor Chris Taylor in the hole, the D-Backs picked their poison and Turner was intentionally walked to get to Taylor.

On the first pitch offered, Chris Taylor singled to left. The runner scored easily from third and Fernando Rodney (and his ERA) took a loss in the Dodgers’ walk-off number five.

Logan Forsythe II

Kenley Jansen committed his first (and only!) blown save of 2017 against Matt Kemp and, his former team, the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers watched as their 4-1 lead eroded and the ballgame was tied after nine. The outcome would have to be decided in extra innings.

Another familiar name from recent Dodgers history was pitching for Atlanta on Sunday, July 23. In the bottom of the tenth, Jim Johnson had pitched himself into a jam with bases loaded and one out. Logan Forsythe was at bat for LA facing a one-ball and no-strike count. Forsythe cracked a ground ball to center through the middle infield gap. Corey Seager scored the winning run on Forsythe’s game winning RBI and the Dodgers’ earned an amazing seventh walk-off win.

Justin Turner

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The Dodgers had rallied in the seventh on Wednesday, July 26 to cut a three-run deficit to just one against the Minnesota Twins. Another Dodger run scored in the eighth inning and the game was tied at five heading into the bottom of the ninth. After two singles in a row from Los Angeles, Justin Turner came to bat for the Dodgers.

With runners in scoring position and two out, JT was looking for something to hit. He got the pitch he wanted from former Twins closer Brandon Kintzler. With the count full, Justin “Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say RedTurn?” Turner found the gap between third and short and treated the crowd to their eighth Dodger walk-off hit of the year.

Kyle Farmer

This was a classic match-up between the Dodgers and their rivals to the North. It was a game in which the Dodgers had to come back just to even the score at one apiece after being shutout by the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner over seven frames.

In the bottom of the ninth, Los Angeles rallied to tie the game and force extra innings only to see San Francisco regain the lead in the top half of the eleventh. With runners on first and second and one out, Kyle Farmer was asked to pinch hit in a game that the Dodgers were at risk of losing. Boy, what a way to make an entrance.

Not only did Farmer get his first major league at-bat against the hated ones, he also did it in heroic fashion. On Sunday, July 30, in front of over 50,000 fans reported to be in attendance that day, Kyle Farmer hit a line drive double to right field. His hit earned him two RBI and the adoration of all in attendance that day. It also gave the Dodgers walk-off win number nine in 2017.

Yasiel Puig

Down 2-4, the Dodgers came up in the bottom of the ninth inning feeling confident and secure in the fact that they could tumble the Chicago White Sox’ flimsy bullpen. Sure enough, Cody Bellinger came through with a pinch-hit single with one out. He scored one batter later on Logan Forsythe’s line drive double to left field. The next batter, Austin Barnes, singled advancing Forsythe to third base.

With one out and down by a run in the ninth, up comes the wild horse Yasiel Puig. Puig worked an eight pitch at-bat to a full count before doubling off White Sox pitcher Jake Petricka deep to left center. Wednesday, August 16 marked the final regular season walk-off hit by the Dodgers en route to their fifth consecutive division title.

Last year’s magical run featured a different hero every night for the Dodgers. In a year filled with thrilling finishes, it was even more impressive to think that there were a number of hitters contributing to the league leading total of ten memorable walk-off wins.

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When the Dodgers won this game on the final at-bat, they had pulled off the thrilling feat more than any other team in baseball. Just two months later, the Dodgers would again use their flair for the dramatic. On October 15th, 2017, Justin Turner blasted a Kirk Gibson flavored walk-off home run. Turner’s tater iced Chicago in Game 2 of the LCS and helped return Los Angeles to the World Series for the first time since Gibson’s Dodgers were there in 1988.