Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts homer back to back to walk off Rockies

LOS ANGELES — There are a lot of things the Dodgers could — and need to — fix before the start of their postseason run. Those are all pretty obvious, starting with their starting pitching.

Ohtani and Betts came through when the Dodgers needed them most, launching back-to-back homers in the ninth inning to erase a one-run deficit en route to a 6-5 walk-off win over the Rockies on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

With the win, the Dodgers held onto a three-game lead in the National League West over the Padres, whom they’ll host for a pivotal three-game series in L.A. starting on Tuesday.

“You need your stars to play like stars,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “For those guys to come through today — it’s not easy, the responsibility that those guys have. But the emotion was real and it was good to see.”

Before Sunday’s game, Roberts urged his team to play with a sense of urgency as the NL West will come down to the last week of the regular season. Through six innings, the Dodgers came out flat and the Rockies made them pay, jumping out to a 5-1 lead as Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed four runs over three uninspiring innings.

“It wasn’t pretty early,” Roberts said. “We fought. We had some opportunities. The ground-ball double plays certainly killed some rallies. But it was just great to see our guys still compete.”

The sense of urgency started to kick in for the Dodgers in the seventh inning. Betts admitted he saw San Diego make a late comeback and win their game on the out-of-town scoreboard. They knew if they dropped the series to Colorado, they would be limping into the big set against their rival with just a two-game lead atop the division.

But as the Padres mounted their comeback against the White Sox, the Dodgers were determined to do the same against the Rockies. Kiké Hernández got the crowd and home dugout back into the game with a massive two-run homer to cut the deficit in half.

Freddie Freeman, who halted a pair of rallies earlier in the game by hitting into double plays, made amends with an RBI single. All of a sudden, the Dodgers were back within striking distance.

“I think Freddie getting the base hit to score a run, that sort of energized us,” Roberts said. “Freddie’s been trying to find his way. And we do go with him as far as his emotion. And when he’s more downtrodden, it seems like everyone sort of follows suit. But when he’s chipper and going, that energy resonates with everyone else.”

That energy was needed in the ninth inning as the Dodgers were down to their final three outs. Ohtani, however, continued to be a man on a mission late in the season, smoking a game-tying homer to right-center field off Seth Halvorsen.

After making contact, Ohtani immediately turned to his dugout, showing more emotion than usual. In many ways, in a season full of dominance, Sunday’s homer was his most impactful in a Dodgers uniform.

“Well, he’s a superstar,” said Rockies manager Bud Black. “He’s a great player. He’s got 50-plus home runs. That’s what he does, what the Dodgers do, right?”

Yes, Ohtani is a superstar. He’s on his way to a third career Most Valuable Player Award. But Betts is pretty good, too. And the 2018 AL MVP’s first walk-off homer with the Dodgers came at a perfect time, as he turned around a 100.6 mph heater in the inside part of the plate, sending it over the left-field wall.

“It was huge,” Betts said, when asked how big the ninth inning felt in the dugout. “Especially when you’re looking at the scoreboard and you see San Diego won. … Shohei starts it off with a homer there to give us some energy and fortunately, I was able to put a good swing on it.”

Securing the series win over the Rockies was the first step for the Dodgers. Now, they’ll look to continue that momentum into the biggest series of the regular season. If the Dodgers win the set against the Padres, they lock up their 11th NL West crown in 12 seasons. If they don’t, it’ll all come down to the final weekend.

“To go into a series, those guys playing great, winning three, coming up here, they’ve had their way with us up to this point,” Roberts said. “To lose this series, it would have been tough. Just mentally feeling a little bit like you’re on your heels. But after this series win, I feel like we can still continue to be aggressive and go out there and try to win a series.”