LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman seems to have a knack for walk-off homers.
Freeman greeted former teammate Kirby Yates with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth, as the Dodgers beat the Angels, 1-0, on Friday.
It was the sixth career walk-off homer for Freeman in the regular season, plus a couple you may remember from the last two World Series.
“Freddie just has that aura,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s not too many guys in baseball that you’d want up in a game-winning situation and Freddie does it once again. It’s pretty remarkable how he can want to be that guy and come through as many times as he does.”
Yates, who spent last season with the Dodgers before signing as a free agent with the Angels, threw a 92 mph fastball over the middle on a 3-and-2 count, and Freeman launched it into the bleachers in right-center field. His walk-off homer came a night after the Dodgers gave up a walk-off homer in Arizona.
“When you face Kirby, you’ve got to look up, fastballs and splitters,” Freeman said. “If you look down, you’re probably going to chase the splitters. I had a nice game plan going into it looking up and I got a really good pitch.”
Yates was the one to finally blink in what had been a taut pitchers’ duel between the Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki and the Angels’ Reid Detmers.
Sasaki struck out a career-high 10 in seven innings, while Detmers struck out six in six innings. Each pitcher gave up two hits, none in the first three innings.
Sasaki continued moving past the erratic performances that marked his first go-around in the majors. In his last four starts – beginning with a dominant performance against the Angels on May 17 in Anaheim – Sasaki has a 1.48 ERA with 29 strikeouts and five walks.
“This is the guy that we saw on video in Japan and that we hoped to get,” Roberts said. “I think we are all guilty of expecting it to be seamless and it’s certainly unfair to Roki and not appreciating there has to be some transition period. He went through some tough times, some doubts, but he’s gotten to the other side.”
His fastball velocity also continues climbing. He threw his hardest major league pitch to date, hitting 100.6 mph in the second inning. His 98.3 average fastball on Friday was 1.2 mph harder that his season average coming into the game.
“I’ve been doing a lot of things from the offseason and making adjustments in-season too,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “I feel like everything is coming together right now.”
Angels manager Kurt Suzuki, who is always quick to credit opposing pitchers when his team doesn’t hit, couldn’t be questioned for giving kudos to Sasaki after this performance.
“He was tough, man,” Suzuki said. “The guy was sitting 98. I haven’t seen him pitch like this ever. He was sitting 98, 99, 100 and with the nasty split and slider. And it looked like he was pretty much on the rails all night. Especially with two strikes, he was executing his pitches. Sometimes you just got to tip your hat to the other pitcher.”
Sasaki’s defense turned two nice plays in the third inning.
Second baseman Miguel Rojas bare-handed a ball that deflected off of Sasaki’s glove and made an off-balance throw while moving to his right to barely get Nick Madrigal at first. Shortstop Mookie Betts then ranged over the middle to backhand a Zach Neto grounder. He made a quick flip to get the inning-ending force out at second.
In the sixth, third baseman Santiago Espinal made a diving stop of a Jo Adell grounder, saving a run.
“I think they took a lot of hits away from us,” Suzuki said. “Some hard ones there. If we put a couple runs on the board, you never know what can happen. But credit to their defense. They played good for Sasaki tonight.”
Detmers also got an assist from his defense in the first, when Mike Trout made a catch of a Betts line drive on a full sprint toward left center.
In the sixth, catcher Logan O’Hoppe made a perfect throw to nail Andy Pages trying to steal second.
Detmers bounced back from a sloppy outing last weekend in Tampa Bay, looking more like the pitcher who struck out 14 in a dominant game in his previous start.
“I thought he was attacking good with his fastball,” Suzuki said. “Throwing strikes, making them swing the bat. I thought he was good the whole night. There wasn’t a time where I felt like he was nibbling. He was attacking, pounding the zone with everything that he had. That was one of the best games I’ve seen him pitch.”
Detmers’ strikeout victims included Shohei Ohtani twice. Detmers also got Ohtani on a flyout, helping to end his 19-game on-base streak. Detmers also struck out Will Smith twice, once with two runners on and two outs in the fourth.
Like Sasaki, Detmers also had a little extra juice for this matchup. His average fastball was also 1.2 mph harder than his season average coming into the game. Detmers also threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 21 hitters he faced, an excellent ratio.
“That’s the key key to the game,” Detmers said. “If you get ahead, your life’s gonna be a lot easier. It might not not always work out well, but it’s gonna eventually work out in your favor.”
Once the starters were done, the relievers were just as good. Edgardo Henriquez worked a scoreless eighth, including a strikeout of Trout on a 102.7 mph fastball. Left-hander Tanner Scott got the first two outs of the ninth, then right-hander Blake Treinen needed one pitch to get the third out.
Angels right-handers Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman got through the seventh and eighth, respectively, each stranding one runner.
It didn’t take long for Yates to make one mistake that was enough to spoil all the other good work of the Angels’ pitchers.
“Tried to get it in on him,” Yates said. “I didn’t. Hey, Freddie’s a Hall of Famer.”