Dodgers no-hitter broken up by Shotime triple

The second game of the home series against the Angels ended with a 4-1 win for the Dodgers, and an outstanding outing on the bump for Tyler Anderson, who went no-hit into the ninth inning.

Anderson’s no-hitter had an asterisk by it, to be sure. A fielding error in the top of the first when Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger collided, allowed Taylor Ward to reach first. The damage was immediately undone when Ward was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.

In the top of the seventh, Jared Walsh hit a little dribbler up the first base line, which led Anderson fielding it himself and throwing the ball into right field for a throwing error.

Anderson also walked two and hit a batter, making five baserunners on the day for the Angels. But with 19 batters retired, Tyler Anderson had a bumper evening by any interpretation. He went eight and a third innings and threw a career high 123 pitches before surrendering the only hit of the game, a three-bagger by double-threat sensation Shohei Ohtani.

The bottom of the first was a statement inning by the Dodgers, with Will Smith blasting a three-run shot over the left field wall and Chris Taylor nearly repeating the trick, only to have Mike Trout go up and rob the home run from him in center.

Trea Turner took a ball deep to left in the bottom of the third with a solo shot that closed out the Dodgers’ scoring for the evening.

When Ohtani smacked a hanging first pitch changeup into the right field corner, Anderson’t evening came to a close and the home crowd gave him an enthusiastic, and well-deserved, standing ovation as he left the field.

When asked about the moment, Anderson said that he was “Just soaking it in. It felt like a really big spot in a playoff game situation. The crowd was really, really into it. You can feel the energy in situations like that and you don’t get that very often.”

The changeup that he threw to Ohtani had been a ringer of a pitch all day, with nine of his thirteen whiffs coming on that one pitch alone. Even the Angels were admiring it, with Taylor Ward saying, “The funky timing mechanism he has, definitely him varying that helped his game. And he had a great changeup. We tried to have a plan going up there, but he was able to get me personally [with the changeup].”

Dave Roberts seems to have re-thought his position on no-hitters since coming in for a ton of criticism on pulling Clayton Kershaw out of a potential perfect game earlier this season. “I look at each individual situation, and I know I’ve got this reputation as the grim reaper,” Roberts laughed. “But I’m a sports fan, too, and I wanted that just as much. I really felt I wanted that just as much as Tyler and his teammates wanted that for him.”

With Dodger starters Walker Buehler, Andrew Heaney and Clayton Kershaw all suffering from injuries early in the season, the late acquisition for the Dodgers had the door crack open for him to get into the rotation and has been making the most of his chances.

And the Dodgers and their fans have certainly noticed him. If Tyler Anderson flew under the radar before, he is held in high regard by the True Blue Nation now.

Dave Roberts broke it down for us perfectly. “This is the Dodgers. It’s Dodger Stadium. It’s the Freeway Series. It’s [Mike] Trout, Ohtani, and you’ve got Tyler Anderson here with an opportunity to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning with 50,000 people. You talk about odds, that’s a special moment.”

It certainly is, Dave. It certainly is.