Agustin Ramirez's walk-off homer finishes Miami's four-run ninth in 6-4 comeback over Dodgers

One swing carried Los Angeles for most of the day

The Dodgers did not spend the afternoon short on opportunities. They collected nine hits, drew five walks, were hit by two pitches and made the Marlins throw 181 pitches. What kept the game from becoming a rout was how much traffic went unused. Los Angeles left 16 men on base and grounded into two double plays, so the entire early advantage rested on one clean blow in the fourth inning.

That blow belonged to Josue De Paula. His 416-foot homer to right scored Will Smith and Kyle Tucker and gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. De Paula finished 2-for-2 with three RBIs, and for a long stretch that looked like the defining performance of the game. Eury Perez lasted five innings for Miami, allowing four hits, three runs and two walks while striking out five on 96 pitches. The line was workable; the game state was not, because Los Angeles kept creating chances even without adding much to the scoreboard.

The other reason the score stayed frozen was Emmet Sheehan. The Dodgers right-hander worked six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out five. Alex Vesia followed with a scoreless seventh, and the Marlins were still looking for their first real breakthrough when the game moved into the late innings. For seven frames, Miami had managed only two hits and one walk against those two pitchers.

An eighth-inning crack became a ninth-inning collapse

Miami finally pushed the game off its script in the eighth. Edgardo Henriquez recorded only two outs and was tagged for three hits and two runs, and the rally came down to Otto Lopez's single to center. Joe Mack and Esteury Ruiz scored on the play, Heriberto Hernandez moved to second, and a quiet offensive day suddenly became a 3-2 game.

The Dodgers answered immediately enough to seem safe again. In the top of the ninth, Mookie Betts lined a ground-rule double that brought home Alex Freeland for a 4-2 lead. That insurance run mattered for only a few minutes. Victor Vodnik had already given Miami 1 1/3 innings despite allowing that run, and Dax Fulton closed the top half without further damage, keeping the margin at one swing.

Then the Dodgers bullpen gave the Marlins too many hittable moments in too little space. Javier Sanoja doubled to left to score Jakob Marsee and Xavier Edwards, tying the game at 4-4. Before Los Angeles could reset, Agustin Ramirez drove a 407-foot homer to left-center, scoring Sanoja with him and ending the game at 6-4. Tanner Scott was charged with three runs in one-third of an inning, Brock Stewart was tagged with the final two-run shot without recording an out, and a game that had looked controlled became a full late unraveling.

Our take: same hit total, very different use of it

Both clubs finished with nine hits, and that is the cleanest way to explain why this result feels so sharp from the Dodgers' side and so satisfying from Miami's. The difference was not volume. It was sequencing and conversion. Los Angeles had more free baserunners through walks and hit batters, but turned that into just one run after the fourth inning. Miami drew only two walks all day, yet packed its damage into the eighth and ninth and got six RBIs from its nine hits.

For the Dodgers, the lesson is not mysterious. A lineup that saw 181 pitches and put 16 runners on base cannot come away with only four runs and expect every late inning to stay orderly. Freddie Freeman went 0-for-4, Max Muncy went 0-for-4, Alex Call went 0-for-4, and Tucker scored once without a hit. Those are not indictments of those hitters in isolation; they are the measurable shape of a game in which enough chances existed to build a much sturdier lead. On the mound, the contrast was just as plain: Sheehan and Vesia covered seven scoreless innings, then the next three Dodgers pitchers combined to allow seven hits and six runs while recording only three outs.

For the Marlins, the comeback should not hide the messier parts. Their pitchers allowed nine hits, five walks and two hit batters, and Perez needed 96 pitches to get through five innings. That is a lot of traffic to survive against Los Angeles. But Miami's relief work in the middle of the game gave the offense time to matter. Jack Ralston and Josh Ekness supplied scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh, Fulton finished the win, and the lineup found the extra-base impact it had lacked earlier: Sanoja's two-run double and Ramirez's two-run homer accounted for the entire final swing of the night. The Marlins did not play a spotless game. They played the last two innings better, and in baseball that is sometimes the only distinction that counts.

Scoring moments

1. 4th Inning

   De Paula homered to right (416 feet), Smith scored and Tucker scored.

2. 8th Inning

   Lopez singled to center, Mack scored and Ruiz scored, Hernández to second.

3. 9th Inning

   Betts hit a ground rule double, Freeland scored.

4. 9th Inning

   Sanoja doubled to left, Marsee scored and Edwards scored.

5. 9th Inning

   Ramírez homered to left center (407 feet), Sanoja scored.